DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK   •   BOSTON  •   CHICAGO   •  DALLAS 
ATLANTA   •   SAN  FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  LIMITED 

LONDON   •  BOMBAY   •  CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  LTD. 

TORONTO 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


A  TEXT-BOOK  FOR  SURVEY 
STUDENTS 


BY 
R.  W.  £AUTLEY,  D.L.S.,  B.C.L.S.,  A.L.S. 

LATE  SURVEYOR  TO  THE  LAND  TITLES  OFFICE  AT  EDMONTON 
ALBERTA,  AND  MEMBER  ALBERTA  AND  BRITISH 
COLUMBIA  BOUNDARY  COMMISSION 


fork 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 
1913 

AH  rights  reserved 


COPTBIGHT,  1913 

BY  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 
Set  up  and  electrotyped.    Published  December,  1913. 


INTRODUCTION 

Title  to  land  is  based  upon  the  description 
contained  in  the  deed  conveying  it.  It  is  not 
enough  that  the  boundaries  should  be  accurately 
surveyed:  the  land  itself  must  be  so  described 
hi  the  deed  as  to  identify  it  without  ambiguity 
and  beyond  any  possible  doubt.  The  importance 
of  a  precise  description  is  enhanced  when  the 
boundaries  are  partially  or  wholly  unsurveyed: 
it  must  then  be  so  bounded  that  all  the  surveyors 
who  may  be  employed  in  laying  out  the  boundaries 
shall  find  identical  lines  if  their  operations  are 
conducted  with  accuracy,  and  that  the  land  lying 
between  the  lines  so  located  shall  be  the  particular 
piece  of  land  which  the  parties  to  the  deed  are 
intending  to  deal  with.  A  surveyor  who  is  draft- 
big  a  description  must  be  able  to  express  what  he 
wishes  to  say  hi  sentences  that  will  admit  of  only 
one  interpretation;  he  must  have  a  clear  concep- 
tion of  what  he  has  to  describe,  of  the  surveying 
operations  involved  and  of  the  exact  meaning  of 
the  words  he  is  using,  as  interpreted  by  judicial 
decisions. 

The  writing  of  descriptions  cannot  be  governed 
by  absolute  rules.  Whether  a  piece  of  land  should 


vi  INTRODUCTION 

be  described  by  adjoiners,  or  by  land  marks  or 
by  the  courses  and  length  of  the  boundaries  de- 
pends upon  a  variety  of  circumstances:  when  in 
doubt  the  surveyor  should  be  guided  by  legal 
advice.  While  it  is  true  that  most  lawyers  are 
quite  ignorant  of  the  most  elementary  principles 
of  surveying,  it  is  equally  true  that  few  surveyors, 
if  any,  are  able  to  understand  the  intricacies  of  a 
complicated  title.  The  cooperation  of  surveyor 
and  lawyer  is  necessary. 

One  of  the  blessings  of  the  Dominion  Lands 
System  of  Survey  is  that  descriptions  generally 
assume  such  a  simple  form  that  the  average  sur- 
veyor should  have  no  difficulty  in  writing  them 
if  he  will  only  take  the  trouble  to  conform  to  a 
few  rules. 

In  the  pages  which  follow  Mr.  R.  W.  Cautley 
has  endeavored  to  formulate  these  rules:  his 
experience  as  a  surveyor  in  active  practice  for  a 
number  of  years  and  subsequently  as  Surveyor 
to  the  Land  Titles  Office  at  Edmonton  having 
given  him  exceptional  opportunities,  his  views  on 
the  questions  involved  are  especially  valuable. 

E.  DEVILLE. 


PREFACE 

While  there  are  a  great  many  standard  works 
on  the  subject  of  conveyancing,  they  deal,  for 
the  most  part,  with  the  legal  aspect  of  the  subject, 
with  which  a  survey  student  has  nothing  to  do. 
At  the  same  time  all  survey  students  in  Canada 
are  required  to  pass  an  examination  on  "Descrip- 
tions of  Land,"  which  is  one  important  branch 
of  the  subject  of  conveyancing.  I  have  therefore 
written  the  following  text-book  in  the  hope  that 
it  may  prove  useful  hi  helping  survey  students 
to  get  up  the  subject  for  their  examination,  and — 
what  is  far  more  important — to  realize  the  im- 
portance of  the  subject,  and,  by  further  study  of 
it,  to  become  capable  of  filling  a  more  useful 
position  as  a  surveyor  in  after  Me.  Writing 
descriptions  of  land  is  essentially  a  branch  of  sur- 
veying and  every  complicated  description  should 
be  drawn  by  an  authorized  surveyor.  Unfor- 
tunately a  great  many  surveyors  are  satisfied 
with  obtaining  proficiency  in  field  work,  as  the 
most  important  and  lucrative  part  of  surveying, 
and  do  not  take  the  trouble  to  become  proficient 
in  description  writing,  draughtsmanship,  survey 
law  or  any  other  kindred  subject  once  they  have 
vii 


viii  PREFACE 

obtained  their  commission.  I  venture  to  say  that 
any  surveyor,  having  just  acquired  his  commis- 
sion, who  will  devote  a  year  or  two  to  acquiring 
a  knowledge  of  office  work  and  general  business 
methods  in  a  department  of  the  Government,  in 
the  land  department  of  a  railway  system  or  in  the 
employ  of  any  corporation  having  extensive  deal- 
ings in  land,  will  find  that  the  knowledge  so  ob- 
tained will  open  to  him  a  wider  field  of  oppor- 
tunity that  will  more  than  compensate  him  for 
the  increased  earnings  which  he  might  have  had 
by  undertaking  field  work  at  once. 

In  studying  this  subject  it  is  important  to  note 
the  close  connection  between  the  practice  of  sur- 
veying, the  writing  of  descriptions  of  land  and  a 
knowledge  of  the  laws  governing  registration  of 
land  titles.  It  is  absolutely  essential  that  any 
surveyor  who  undertakes  to  write  descriptions  of 
land  in  any  given  province  must  first  have  a 
knowledge  of  the  Real  Property  Act  in  force  in 
that  province. 

6th  July,  1913. 
EDMONTON,  ALBERTA. 


CONTENTS 

Section  Page 

DESCRIPTIONS  BASED  ON  ACTUAL  SURVEY    1-2  1 
DESCRIPTIONS  MUST  REFER  TO  PLANS  OF 

RECORD 3  7 

PLANS  AND   HOW  TO   REFER  TO  THEM, 

GENERAL 4-5  9 

Departmental  Plans 6  11 

Subdivision  Plans 7-9  13 

Explanatory  Plans 10-17  16 

Railway  Plans 18-19  23 

USE  OF  NATURAL  BOUNDARIES  IN  DESCRIP- 
TIONS     20-25  27 

USE  OF  WORDS  "MORE  OR  LESS"  IN  DE- 
SCRIPTIONS    26-29  34 

USE  OF  BEARINGS  IN  DESCRIPTIONS 30-39  37 

DESCRIPTION  OF  REMAINDERS 40-42  48 

DESCRIPTION  BY  EXCEPTION 43-47  54 

DESCRIPTION  OF  RAILWAY  RIGHT  OF  WAY    48-50  59 

EXCEPTION  OF  MINERALS  IN  DESCRIPTIONS        51  68 

INTERPRETATION  OF  FAULTY  DESCRIPTIONS  52-53  71 

FORMS  OF  PREAMBLE 54  75 

EXAMPLES,    DESCRIPTION  OF: — 

city  lot  with  appurtenant  easement .         55  76 

partition  of  two  city  lots 56  77 

part  quarter  section .  .- 58  82 

part  bounded  by  right  of  way 59  84 

ordinary  right  of  way 49  60 

right  of  way  by  metes  and  bounds .  .         60  85 

additional  right  of  way 62  87 

interior  parcel  of  quarter  section  ...         15  18 
ix 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 

All  Descriptions  of  Land  must  be  Based  on 
Actual  Survey. 

1.  Since  the  ownership  of  land  is  the  most 
universal  and,  at  the  same  time,  the  most  per- 
manent form  of  property,  it  follows  that  convey- 
ancing of  land  constitutes  the  most  common  and 
important  class  of  transactions  in  the  everyday 
business  of  the  world. 

The  term  "conveyance  of  land"  includes  all  Meaning  of 
documentary    instruments    purporting    to    deal  ve^nc 
with  the  ownership  of  land,  whether  by  way  of  land.", 
absolute  sale  or  transfer,  transmission,  agreement 
of  sale  or  lease. 

Every  conveyance  of  land  may,  for  the  present 
purpose,  be  regarded  as  consisting  of  two  essential 
parts;  first,  that  which  defines  the  relation  be- 
tween the  parties  to  the.  document  as  to  their 
respective  interest   in  the   land,   and   secondly, 
that  which  defines  the  actual  position  and  extent 
•of  the  land  itself.     The  first  of  these  two  parts 
is  a  matter  of  drawing  up  a  legal  document,  and 
should  generally  be  done  by  a  lawyer: — with  it 
1 


Description 
must  be  based 
on  survey. 


,  „. .  :  ,  .  «;;?    *  .^  '''-DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 

we  have  nothing  to  do  here.  The  second  involves 
the  description  of  land  and  forms  the  subject  of 
this  text  book. 

2.  To  begin  with  the  fact  must  be  recognised  that 
all  descriptions  of  land  must  be  based  upon  a 
survey  of  the  land  in  question,  and  the  establish- 
ment on  the  ground  of  recognisable  points  by 
which  the  land  described  may  be  identified. 
Such  points  may  be  either  corners  of  a  mathe- 
matical survey  marked  on  the  ground  by  the 
establishment  of  posts  or  other  survey  monu- 
ments, or  they  may  be  topographical  features  of 
the  country.  In  the  former  case,  since  the  points 
are  arbitrarily  determined,  it  is  essential  that  the 
lines  which  connect  them  should  be  mathemati- 
cally surveyed.  In  the  latter  this  is  not  essential 
for  purposes  of  conveyancing  unless  it  is  desired 
to  include  in  the  conveyance  precise  information 
as  to  the  area  and  measurements  of  the  land 
conveyed. 

For  instance,  when  two  Indian  chiefs  wanted 
to  determine  the  boundaries  of  their  respective 
hunting  grounds,  they  did  so  by  reference  to  a 
range  of  hills  and  an  intersecting  river — points 
of  the  landscape  which  were  patent  to  their  eyes 
and  capable  of  identification  by  their  tribesmen — 
and  in  so  doing  made  an  actual  survey  of  the 
country. 

Again,  after  the  North-West  Rebellion  in  1885 


Description 
by  natural 
boundaries. 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND  3 

the  Government  of  the  Dominion  of  Canada  is- 
sued land  scrip  to  veterans  and  half  breeds  for  a 
certain  specified  quantity  of  land  in  the  North- 
West  Territories,  the  position  of  which  was  unde- 
fined hi  the  scrip  and  left  to  the  choice  of  the 
holder.  This  scrip  was  exchangeable  for  as  much 
real  property  as  the  number  of  acres  mentioned 
in  it;  at  the  same  time  the  land  could  not  be  con- 
veyed until  the  owner  of  the  scrip  had  located  it 
according  to  the  Government's  own  surveys  and 
received  a  patent  for  it  from  the  Crown.  In  other 
words  the  scrip  could  be  sold  as  a  chattel  but  the 
land  which  it  represented  could  only  be  conveyed 
after  it  had  been  defined  in  reference  to  surveys 
on  the  ground. 

Of  course  the  above  rule — that  all  descriptions  Descriptions 
must  be  based  on  actual  survey — is  capable  of  may 

on  remote 

secondary  application.  It  is  not  essential  that  survey, 
all  the  corners  of  a  parcel  of  land  which  it  is  de- 
sired to  describe  should  be  marked  on  the  ground. 
It  is  not  even  necessary  that  any  of  them  should 
be  so  marked.  What  is  essential  is  that  the  exact 
position  of  each  such  corner  shall  be  so  described 
hi  relation  to  the  position  of  some  point  that  is 
surveyed  and  marked  on  the  ground,  and  of  some 
line  of  known  direction  starting  from  said  point, 
that  it  shall  be  capable  of  being  accurately  and 
unambiguously  defined  on  the  ground.  To  take 
a  very  simple  example,  it  is  of  course  possible  to 


4  DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 

describe  and  convey  a  parcel  of  land  containing 
ten  acres  out  of  the  interior  of  a  quarter  section 
by  describing  the  ten  acres  in  reference  to  any 
corner  and  adjacent  side  of  the  quarter  section. 
As  a  further  example  it  is  only  necessary  to  refer 
to  the  Dominion  Lands  Act  1908,  which  expressly 
provides  that  any  quarter  section  shall  be  deemed 
to  be  surveyed  when  any  two  of  the  corners  have 
been  established. 
Description  The  most  extreme  cases  of  land  being  described 

in  reference  to  jn  reference  to  known  points  Outside  the  land  it- 
lines   of   lati-  i.i.ii 

tude  or  longi-  self  are  those  in  which  boundaries  are  described 
tude.  as  unsurveyed  lines  of  latitude  or  longitude.    In 

these  cases  the  real  reference  is  the  Greenwich 
Observatory  in  England  and  the  local  meridian 
at  that  point,  although  usually  there  are  many 
subsidiary  points  and  lines  of  reference  established 
by  previous  survey  much  closer  to  the  projected 
line  than  Greenwich.  For  instance,  the  North 
boundary  of  the  Provinces  of  Saskatchewan  and 
Alberta  has  been  denned  as  the  60th  parallel  of 
North  latitude,  and  the  West  boundary  of  Al- 
berta, is,  in  part,  the  120th  Meridian  of  West 
longitude,  none  of  these  being  actually  defined 
on  the  ground.  In  these  cases,  however,  the 
rights  of  possession  guaranteed  by  a  title  based 
on  a  line  of  latitude  or  longitude  cannot  be  fully 
enjoyed  by  the  owner,  or  enforced  against  possible 
trespass,  until  such  time  as  the  line  is  actually 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND  5 

defined  on  the  ground.  The  story  of  the  Hudson's 
Bay  Company's  Post  on  the  Yukon  River  affords 
a  good  illustration  of  this  point.  Many  years 
ago  the  common  boundary  between  that  part  of 
the  North- West  Territories  now  known  as  the 
Yukon  Territory  and  Alaska — a  territory  of  the 
United  States — was  defined  as  the  141st  Meridian 
of  West  longitude.  In  1847  the  company  estab- 
lished a  trading  post  at  Fort  Yukon  at  the  Junc- 
tion of  the  Yukon  and  Porcupine  Rivers,  but, 
when  the  first  surveys  of  the  country  were  made, 
it  was  found  that  the  longitude  of  Fort  Yukon  was 
approximately  145°  20'  West,  and  its  latitude 
66°  34'  North,  so  that  the  fort  was  about  120 
miles  due  West  of  the  British  American  boundary, 
and  within  American  Territory.  As  a  result  the 
company's  post  was  moved  Easterly  to  a  point 
on  the  Porcupine  River  which  was  East  of  the 
boundary,  and  was  named  Rampart  House,  in 
1869  or  1870. 

Before  leaving  this  phase  of  the  subject  it  may  Descriptions 
be  stated  as  a  fact  that,  in  all  ordinary  cases,  and  good  ,or  b*d 

according    to 

provided  it  is  correct  hi  other  respects,  a  descrip-  proximity   of 
tion  of  land  is  good  or  bad  hi  inverse  ratio  to  the  survey  °n 

which  they 

distance  of  the  land  described  from  the  points  of  are  based, 
reference  in  regard  to  which  it  is  described.    In 
other  words,  that  description  is  best  hi  which  the 
point  of  commencement  at  least  is  referred  to  as 
being  actually  defined  on  the  ground,  and  the 


6  DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 

worst  form  of  description  is  that  in  which  the 
connection  between  the  point  of  commencement 
of  the  land  described  and  the  points  of  reference 
in  relation  to  which  it  is  described  is  long,  com- 
plicated and  obscure. 

The  following  reasons  may  be  given  for  the 
above  statement : — 

(a).  A  description  should  always  be  made  as 
simple  and  direct  as  possible. 

(6).  A  description  does  not  fulfil  all  its  purposes 
until  the  land  described  has  been  identified  on 
the  ground,  and  although  a  description  based  on 
a  survey  at  some  distance  from  the  land  described 
may  be  perfectly  sufficient  for  the  purpose  of 
conveying  the  said  land  it  necessitates  a  survey 
before  the  land  can  be  identified  and  is,  to  that 
extent,  incomplete. 

Description         (c).  A  description  of  land  the  boundaries  of 

tuai^ositioT  w^c^  are  described  as  being  between  certain 

of  points  on    posts  or  other  monuments  on  the  ground  is  bound 

ground.          ^y  tke  actuai  position  of  such  posts  or  monuments, 

and  thus  any  errors  of  distances  or  bearings  given 

in  the  written  description  are  absorbed  by  the 

survey  on  the  ground. 


Descriptions  Should  Refer  to  Plans  of  Survey 
Which  are  of  Record,  as  well  as  to  the 
Survey  Itself. 

3.  Having  seen  that  all  descriptions  of  land  Descriptio 


must  be  based  on  actual  land  surveys—  near  or  re-         J1" 


mote  —  it  is  very  important  to  realize  that  de-  survey. 
scriptions  should  always  refer  to  a  plan  of  the  sur- 
vey registered  in  some  public  office  of  the  State, 
as  well  as  to  the  actual  lines  and  monuments  on 
the  ground.  There  are  several  reasons  for  this, 
of  which  the  following  are  perhaps  the  most  im- 
portant :  — 

(a).  A  survey  on  the  ground  cannot  be  brought  Reasons  why 
within  the  comprehension  of  any  person  interested  ^"^^Q 
in  the  land,  except  the  surveyor  who  has  made  pian  of  sur- 
the  survey,  until  it  has  been  plotted  hi  plan  form  vey- 
on  a  convenient  scale.    If  you  take  a  man  out  on 
the  prairie  and  tell  him  that  you  are  standing  at 
about  the  centre  of  a  piece  of  land  having  certain 
measurements  and  containing  a  specified  acreage, 
he  can  only  be  convinced  in  so  far  as  his  faith  in 
your  knowledge  of  the  facts  and  your  personal 
integrity  will  carry  him.    If,  on  the  other  hand, 
you  are  able  to  show  him  a  plan  of  the  same  land, 
with  the  various  measurements  shown  on  it  and 
bearing  on  its  face  the  affidavit  of  a  State  au- 
7 


8  DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 

thorized  land  surveyor  and  the  signatures  of  the 
owner  and  the  public  official  whose  duty  it  is  to 
keep  such  plan  as  a  matter  of  public  record,  he 
is  at  once  able  to  realize  the  position  and  extent 
of  the  land  for  himself. 

(6).  It  is  impracticable  for  all  the  principals, 
or  their  agents,  who  have  to  deal  in  land  to  visit 
any  given  parcel  of  land,  or  to  have  it  resurveyed, 
every  time  they  desire  to  ascertain  anything  in 
regard  to  it. 

(c).  A  plan  duly  registered  in  a  place  of  public 
record  tends  to  do  away  with  any  chance  of  the 
actual  survey  on  the  ground  being  tampered  with 
by  interested  parties. 

(d).  Many  surveys  become  obliterated  alto- 
gether in  process  of  time,  either  by  decay  or  up- 
rooting of  the  monuments  or  by  fire,  so  that  a 
conveyance  of  land  in  which  the  land  is  described 
in  reference  to  posts  planted  in  the  ground  would, 
if  such  posts  were  entirely  obliterated,  often 
become  valueless,  whereas  any  proper  plan  of 
survey  contains  information  from  which  it  would 
be  possible  to  reconstruct  the  survey  on  the 
ground  in  such  a  case. 

(e).  No  registrar  of  land  titles,  under  the 
Torrens  system  of  land  titles  which  obtains  in 
all  the  Western  Provinces  of  Canada  and  to  a 
certain  extent  in  Eastern  Canada,  can  properly 
issue  certificates  of  title  based  on  facts  of  survey 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND  9 

which  are  not  a  matter  of  record  in  his  own  office. 
Since  monuments  on  the  ground  can  never  be 
matters  of  office  record  it  follows  that  a  plan  of 
every  survey  must  be  made  and  registered  before 
such  survey  can  be  accepted  by  a  registrar  as  an 
authentic  fact  on  which  to  base  descriptions  of 
land  for  registration  purposes. 

The  foregoing  paragraphs  may  be  summarized 
by  stating  that  all  references  to  surveys  to  be 
made  in  descriptions  of  land  should  be  made  to 
plans  of  such  surveys  hi  order  that  they  may 
be  intelligible,  accessible  for  purposes  of  verifi- 
cation, better  established  and  valid  for  registra- 
tion. 

4.  The  description  of  a  surveyed  parcel  of  land  Advantages 
which  is  based  on,  and  made  subject  to,  a  plan  of  ° 
the  survey  is  described  partly  in  the  written  sidered  as  a 
words  of  the  description  and  partly  by  the  lines  description, 
and  measurements  shown  on  the  plan.  A  sufficient 
plan  of  survey  constitutes  a  graphically  drawn 
description  of  the  parcels  of  land  shown  on  it.    A 
graphically    drawn    description    possesses    these 
advantages  over  a  written  description,  (a)  that 
the  more  intricate  points  of  the  survey  are  ren- 
dered capable  of  being  visually  realized  by  inspec- 
tion, and  (6)  that  the  mathematical  process  of 
plotting  the  survey  on  a  plan  serves  as  a  check 
against  errors  which  may  easily  be  made  and  un- 
discovered in  a  written  description. 


10  DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 

Definition  of  5.  A  plan  of  survey  that  is  "sufficient"  for 
a  "sufficient"  ^  purpose  of  conveying  land  by  reference  to  it 
vey.  may  be  denned  as  having  the  following  attributes : 

(a).  That  it  is  a  plan  of  an  actual  survey  made 
upon  the  ground  and  marked  on  the  ground  in 
such  a  way  that  the  parcels  of  land  surveyed  may 
be  capable  of  identification. 

(6).  That  it  is  made  by  a  surveyor  authorized 
by  law  to  make  such  a  survey. 

(c).  That  the  survey  and  plan  are  made  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  provisions  of  any  law  affecting 
the  making  of  such  survey  or  plan,  as  to  the 
method  of  survey  employed,  the  marking  of  the 
survey  on  the  ground  and  the  execution  of  the 
plan  by  the  surveyor,  the  registered  owner  and 
any  other  person  required  to  execute  the  same 
under  the  said  provisions. 

(d).  That  the  plan  is  of  record  in  the  public 
office  wherein  such  a  plan  is  required  to  be  regis- 
tered by  the  law  in  that  behalf. 


Plans  and  How  to  Refer  to  them  in  Descriptions 
of  Land. 

DEPARTMENTAL  PLANS 

6.  The  most  important  class  of  plans  are  those  Importance 
issued  by  the  departments  of  the  Government  of  f3  rePresent- 

ing  original 

the  original  surveys  of  different  parts  of  Canada,  surveys. 
The  great  importance  of  these  plans  arises  from 
the  fact  that  they  are  the  plans  of  the  surveys  on 
which  all  original  grants  from  the  Crown  have 
been  based,  and  therefore  on  which  all  subsequent 
title  to  land  depends.  Owing  to  the  fact  that  the 
original  surveys  were  not  always  made  carefully, 
it  has  been  found  necessary  in  a  great  many  in- 
stances to  have  certain  sections  of  the  country 
resurveyed,  and  new  plans  of  the  corrected  survey 
issued,  so  that  it  is  quite  usual  to  find  two,  and 
even  three,  departmental  plans  of  the  same  town- 
ship having  different  measurements  and  acreages 
shown  on  them. 

All  these  plans  are  of  record  in  the  office  of  the  Where  of 
Department  by  whose  authority  they  were  issued,  record- 
and  also  in  the  Land  Titles  Office  for  the  district 
in  which  the  land  occurs.    They  are  usually  iden-  How  identi- 
tified  in  descriptions  that  are  based  on  them  by  fied* 
11 


12  DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 

reference  to  the  date  of  the  official  approval  of 
the  survey  which  they  represent. 

Examples.  Two  examples  are  given  below  of  the  way  in 
which  departmental  plans  may  be  referred  to  in 
descriptions  of  land : — 

(a).  The  whole  of  the  South  East  quarter  of 
Section  1  in  Township  54  and  Range  23  West  of 
the  4th  Meridian  in  the  Province  of  Alberta  in 
the  Dominion  of  Canada  containing  160  acres 
more  or  less  and  as  the  same  is  shown  on  a  plan 
of  survey  of  said  township  approved  and  confirmed 
by  the  Surveyor  General  of  Canada  at  Ottawa 
on  the  14th  day  of  May,  1894,  which  plan  is  of 
record  in  the  Department  of  the  Interior  at  Ottawa 
and  in  the  Land  Titles  Office  for  the  North  Alberta 
Land  Registration  District  at  Edmonton  in  said 
Province. 

(6).  The  whole  of  the  fractional  South  West 
quarter  of  Section  6  in  Township  51  and  Range  24 
West  of  the  4th  Meridian  in  the  Province  of  Al- 
berta in  the  Dominion  of  Canada  containing  39 
acres  more  or  less  and  as  the  same  is  shown  on  a 
plan  of  survey  of  part  of  the  said  township  being  a 
subdivision  of  part  of  the  Papaschase  Indian 
Reserve  made  by  A.  Nelson,  Dominion  Land  Sur- 
veyor and  signed  by  him  at  Ottawa  on  the  29th 
day  of  March,  1892,  which  plan  is  of  record  in 
the  Department  of  Indian  Affairs  at  Ottawa  and 
in  the  Land  Titles  Office  for  the  North  Alberta 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND  13 

Land  Registration  District  at  Edmonton  in  said 
Province. 

NOTE. — The  second  form  is  not  so  good  as  the 
first,  but  it  will  be  found  that  some  of  the  earlier 
plans  were  admitted  to  record  without  endorse- 
ment by  the  head  of  the  department,  and  exam- 
ple (6)  is  supposed  to  represent  a  case  of  this  kind. 


SUBDIVISION  PLANS 

7.  A  second  class  of  plans  which  are  very  im- 
portant, because  of  the  value  of  the  land  which 
they  represent  and  the  great  number  of  convey- 
ances that  are  based  on  them,  is  that  of  City  or 
townsite  plans  of  subdivision. 

The  object  of  these  plans  is  to  facilitate  the  Object  of  sub- 
transaction  of  all  kinds  of  business  having  to  do  ^ion  plans, 
with  city  or  town  lots. 

These  lots  consist  of  small  parcels  of  land 
which  it  would  not  be  practicable  to  deal  with  as 
independent  parcels  described  in  reference  to  the 
outlines  of  the  original  land  survey  on  account 
of  their  number,  the  number  of  transactions  that 
take  place  in  regard  to  them  and  the  fact  that 
it  is  constantly  necessary  to  identify  the  position 
of  the  land  occupied  by  each  lot. 

It  is  quite  usual  for  a  quarter  section,  contain- 
ing 160  acres,  to  be  subdivided  into  1,000  town 
lots,  with  streets  and  lanes.  This  often  results 


14  DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 

in  thousands  of  persons  acquiring  an  interest  in 
small  portions  of  t.he  quarter  section,  either  as 
owner,  mortgagee,  lessee  or  tenant,  and  in  endless 
complications  of  title. 

Subdivision         8.  In  order  to  meet  the  foregoing  conditions 
plans  spe-       a}|  j^gj  property  Acts  contain  provisions  that 

cially  pro- 

vided  for  in     have  the  following  general  effect,  although  they 
Real  Property  vary  considerably  in  scope  and  treatment: 

(a).  That  an  owner  desiring  to  create  a  town- 
site  on  his  property  may  register  a  plan  of  sub- 
division of  the  same,  showing  the  blocks  and  lots 
designated  by  numbers  or  letters,  the  position 
of  streets,  lanes,  parks,  etc.,  and  all  necessary 
measurements. 

(6).  That  upon  the  registration  of  such  a  plan 
he  may  proceed  to  sell  or  otherwise  deal  with  the 
town  lots  shown  thereon  by  reference  to  the  regis- 
tration marks  of  the  plan  and  the  numbers  or 
letters  shown  on  the  plan  to  designate  such  lots. 
Registration        9.  On  the  registration  of  a  plan  of  subdivision 
of  subdivision  under  the  Torreng  system  of  land  titles  the  owners7 

pitin.  C&USGS 

change  in  title  is  changed  in  form  from  a  title  based  on  the 
form  of  title.  originai  ian(i  survey  to  a  title  to  lots  and  blocks 
based  on  the  plan  of  subdivision.  For  instance 
in  the  case  of  a  man  owning  a  quarter  section  of 
land  within  the  limits  of  an  incorporated  city 
and  presenting  for  registration  a  plan  of  subdivi- 
sion of  the  entire  quarter  section,  his  title  to  the 
quarter  section — as  such — would  be  cancelled  in 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND  15 

full  and   he  would  receive  in  exchange  a  new  Once  a  plan 
title  for  all  the  lots  shown  on  the  plan.    It  follows  of  ^Mwirion 

registered  all 

that  descriptions  of  lots,  or  parts  of  lots,  in  a  city  property 
or  townsite  must  always  be  based  on  the  registered  showi1  «n  it 
plan  of  subdivision,  and  that,  after  the  registra-  described  in 
tion  of  such  a  plan,  it  is  wrong  to  attempt  to  de-  reference  to  it. 
scribe  them  in  any  other  way.    Take  the  supposed 
case  of  Lot  1  in  Block  13  situate  hi  the  town  of 
Orwell  and  being  part  of  the  South  East  quarter 
of  Section  1  in  Township  46,  Range  23  West  of 
the  Fourth  Meridian  as  shown  on  a  plan  registered 
in  the  district  land  titles  office  under  number  2079 
in  Day  Book  Q.    A  good  and  sufficient  description 
of  the  above  lot  would  be  as  follows: —  "Lot  num- 
bered One  (1)  in  Block  numbered  Thirteen  (13) 
in  the  Town  of  Orwell  in  the  Province  of  Alberta 
as  the  same  is  shown  on  a  plan  of  survey  regis- 
tered hi  the  Land  Titles  Office  for  the  North  Al- 
berta Land  Registration  District  under  number 
2079  in  Day  Book  Q." 

But  suppose  it  is  merely  described  as  "Lot 
numbered  One  (1)  in  Block  numbered  Thirteen 
in  the  Town  of  Orwell  being  part  of  the  South 
East  quarter  of  Section  One  (1)  in  Township 
Forty-six  (46),  Range  Twenty-three  (23)  West 
of  the  Fourth  (4th)  Meridian,"  this  is  insufficient 
for  the  following  reasons: — 

(a).  There  is  no  certificate  of  title  in  existence 
which  corresponds  with  and  can  be  identified  with 


16  DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 

the  terms  of  the  description.  The  description 
contained  in  the  Certificate  of  Title  for  this  lot 
is  based  on  plan  2079  Q,  which  defines  its  size  and 
relative  position. 

(6).  There  may  be,  and  experience  shows  that 
there  frequently  is,  an  unregistered  plan  which 
shows  Lot  1  Block  13  to  be  in  an  entirely  different 
position  and  which,  nevertheless,  was  the  plan 
which  the  parties  to  the  sale  or  agreement  had 
agreed  upon. 

EXPLANATORY  PLANS 

Purpose  of  ex-  10.  A  third  class  of  plans  are  those  which  are 
drawn  for  the  express  purpose  of  accompanying 
and  elucidating  particular  descriptions  of  land,  and 
which  are  attached  to  and  form  part  of  such  de- 
scription. For  the  purpose  of  distinguishing  them 
from  departmental  plans  or  subdivision  plans, 
they  will  be  referred  to  as  "explanatory  plans." 

Provided  for  11.  Most  of  the  Real  Property  Acts  in  Canada 
Provide  that  a  Registrar  may  require  any  person 
desiring  to  register  an  instrument  containing  a 
complicated  description  of  land  to  furnish  him 
with  an  explanatory  plan,  signed  by  an  authorized 
surveyor,  and  to  make  the  description  in  the  in- 
strument subject  to  the  plan  by  embodying  a 
direct  reference  to  the  plan  in  the  instrument 
itself. 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND  17 

12.  The  object  of  an  explanatory  plan  is  to  Effect  of  ex- 
attach  to  a  description  which  is  not  of  a  nature  to  p}anatory 

plans. 

be  capable  of  comprehension  by  the  Registrar,  or 
his  staff,  the  weight  of  evidence  afforded  by  a 
plan  of  survey  certified  to  be  correct  by  a  surveyor 
whom  the  Government  has  found  worthy  to 
receive  a  Commission  as  such  from  the  Crown 
and  who  has  done  the  work  necessary  to  prove 
the  correctness  of  the  description. 

13.  An  explanatory  plan,  and  the  survey  which 
it  represents,  add  a  great  deal  to  the  cost  of  con- 
veyancing, so  that  there  is  a  constant  tendency  on 
the  part  of  lawyers  to  save  their  clients  money  by 
evading  the  necessity  of  having  a  plan  made.    The 
question  therefore  arises  as  to  what  constitutes  a 
complicated  description.    As  the  answer  to  this  Definition  of 
question  generally  lies  in  the  discretion  of  the  *  c°mpfoat«i 

description. 

Registrar,  it  is  only  possible  to  consider  the  sub- 
ject in  a  general  way.  Any  description  may  be 
said  to  be  complicated,  the  facts  of  which  cannot 
be  grasped  when  it  is  read  through  by  a  man  who 
is  accustomed  to  such  work.  Further,  any  descrip- 
tion in  which  it  is  necessary  to  make  a  trigono- 
metrical calculation  in  order  to  prove  the  cor- 
rectness of  the  various  courses,  or  to  plot  the  said 
courses  in  order  to  prove  the  correctness  of  the 
acreage  specified,  is  complicated  within  the  mean- 
ing of  the  term  as  applied  here. 

14.  Explanatory  plans  are  not  registered  as 


18  DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 

independent  instruments,  as  are  plans  of  sub- 
division, but  are  merely  attached  to  the  instru- 
ment of  which  they  are  really  a  part,  and  must 
be  referred  to  accordingly.  For  example: — " — 
and  as  shown  colored  red  on  a  plan  of  survey 
attached  to  an  instrument  registered  in  the 
Land  Titles  Office  for  the  Land  Reg- 
istration District  under  number  in  Day 

Book ." 

15.  As  explanatory  plans  are  intended  to  ac- 
company a  description  of  a  particular  parcel  of 
land  it  only  becomes  necessary  to  refer  to  them 
in  descriptions  affecting  the  same  land.  That  is 
they  are  plans  of  special  record  affecting  one  par- 
ticular parcel  of  land  instead  of  being  plans  of 
general  record  affecting  many  different  titles,  as 
in  the  case  of  a  departmental  plan  or  a  plan  of 
subdivision.  Moreover,  whereas  a  departmental 
plan  is  usually  a  plan  of  an  original  survey,  and  a 
subdivision  plan  is  one  that  has  been  accepted 
in  lieu  of  such  plan  of  original  survey,  so  that,  in 
either  case,  all  titles  which  are  based  on  them  de- 
pend directly  on  the  plan  itself  and  the  survey 
which  it  represents,  this  is  not  the  case  with  ex- 
planatory plans. 

Explanatory  Explanatory  plans  can  only  be  used  to  accom- 
secondary7  &  Pany  a  description  of  a  part  of  one  of  the  larger 
base  of  de-  parcels  shown  on  a  plan  of  general  record,  and 
scnption.  anv  ^je  jssue(j  on  guch  a  description  depends, 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND  19 

first,  on  the  plan  of  general  record,  and,  second- 
arily, on  the  explanatory  plan. 

Hence  it  is  sometimes  held  that  a  description 
accompanied  by  an  explanatory  plan  must  in- 
clude in  the  text  a  full  written  description  of  the 
lands  by  metes  and  bounds,  as  well  as  the  refer- 
erences  to  the  plan  of  general  record  and  the  ex- 
planatory plan,  as  in  example  (a)  given  below.  On 
the  other  hand  it  is  very  common  practice  to 
make  the  description  depend  directly  on  the  ex- 
planatory plan,  as  in  example  (6). 

My  own  opinion  is  that  either  form  is  correct 
providing  the  explanatory  plan  is  a  plan  of  ac- 
tual survey,  duly  certified  by  an  authorized  sur- 
veyor and  sufficiently  executed  by  the  registered 
owner  of  the  land. 

The  advantage  in  Form  (a)  lies  in  the  fact  that 
a  title  issued  on,  and  containing,  such  a  descrip- 
tion is,  to  a  large  extent,  self  contained  and  com- 
plete, whereas  a  title  issued  hi  Form  (6)  cannot 
be  understood  without  a  certified  copy  of  the 
explanatory  plan  or  an  examination  of  the  original 
at  the  land  registry  office. 

The  advantage  in  Form  (6)  is  that  it  does  away 
with  any  chance  of  a  discrepancy  between  the 
written  description  and  the  plan — a  serious  error 
which  is  by  no  means  uncommon. 

(a).  "All  that  part  of  the  South  East  quarter 
of  Section  twenty  (20)  in  Township  Forty-seven 


20  DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 

(47)  Range  Twenty-one  (21)  West  of  the  Fourth 
(4th)  Meridian  as  the  same  is  shown  on  a  plan 
of  survey  of  the  said  Township  approved  and 
confirmed  by  the  Surveyor  General  of  Canada  at 
Ottawa  on  the  14th  day  of  May,  1894,  of  record 
in  the  Department  of  the  Interior  at  Ottawa  and 
in  the  Land  Titles  Office  for  the  North  Alberta 
Land  Registration  District  at  Edmonton  in  the 
Province  of  Alberta  which  may  be  more  par- 
ticularly described  as  follows: — Commencing  at 
an  iron  post  planted  at  a  point  on  the  Southerly 
boundary  of  said  quarter  section  distant  six 
hundred  (600')  feet  more  or  less  Westerly  from 
the  South  East  corner  thereof,  Thence  Northerly 
and  parallel  to  the  Easterly  boundary  of  said 
quarter  section  six  hundred  and  sixty  (660')  feet 
more  or  less  to  an  iron  post  planted, 

"Thence  South  forty-five  degrees  and  no  min- 
utes more  or  less  West  nine  hundred  and  thirty- 
three  decimal  point  two  (933.2)  feet  more  or  less  to 
an  iron  post  planted  on  said  Southerly  boundary, 

"  Thence  Easterly  and  following  said  Southerly 
boundary  six  hundred  and  sixty  (660')  feet  more 
or  less  to  the  point  of  commencement, 

"The  part  herein  described  containing  five  (5) 
acres  be  the  same  more  or  less  and  as  shown 
colored  red  on  a  plan  of  survey  of  the  same  made 
by  Alfred  Jones,  Dominion  Land  Surveyor  and 
attached  hereto." 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND  21 

(6).  "All  that  part  of  the  South  East  quarter 
of  Section  Twenty  (20)  in  Township  Forty-seven 
(47)  Range  Twenty-one  (21)  West  of  the  Fourth 
(4th)  Meridian  as  the  same  is  shown  on  a  plan 
of  survey  of  the  said  Township  approved  and 
confirmed  by  the  Surveyor  General  of  Canada 
at  Ottawa  on  the  14th  day  of  May  1894  of  record 
in  the  Department  of  the  Interior  at  Ottawa  and 
the  Land  Titles  Office  for  the  North  Alberta  Land 
Registration  District  at  Edmonton  in  the  Prov- 
ince of  Alberta  containing  five  (5)  acres  be  the 
same  more  or  less  and  as  lettered  "X"  and  shown 
colored  red  on  a  plan  of  survey  of  the  same  made 
by  Alfred  Jones,  Dominion  Land  Surveyor  and 
attached  hereto. " 

NOTE. — The  two  above  examples  are  intended 
to  be  embodied  in  an  original  transfer  of  the  parcel 
described.  In  the  title  that  would  issue,  and  in 
all  subsequent  transfers,  it  would  be  necessary  to 
substitute  for  the  final  word  "hereto"  the  follow- 
ing— "to  an  instrument  registered  in  the  said 

Land  Titles  Office  under  number  hi  Day 

Book ." 

16.  When  referring  to  a  registered  plan  or  other  important 
instrument  hi  a  description  of  land  it  is  of  the  that  reference 

to  plans  shall 

utmost  importance  that  the  reference  shall  be  identify 
made  in  terms  that  shall  absolutely  identify  the 
plan  or  instrument  referred  to.    To  do  this  it  is 
necessary  to  have  some  knowledge  of  the  system 


22 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


System  of 

registration 

discussed. 


under  which  instruments  are  registered  in  different 
registry  offices.  The  most  general  system  of 
registration  is  that  in  which  instruments  are 
registered  according  to  the  number  given  them 
in  the  current  day  book  or  journal,  and  the  num- 
ber or  letter  given  to  said  book  to  distinguish  it 
from  those  that  have  already  been  filled  and  those 
of  the  future.  For  instance,  take  a  day  book 
containing  room  for  8,000  entries  and  known  as 
Day  Book  "Q."  Each  instrument  that  is  regis- 
tered is  given  the  next  unused  number — say 
3679 — and  henceforth  becomes  known  for  all  pur- 
poses of  registration  as  "  instrument  registered 

in  the  Land  Titles  Office  for  the Land 

Registration  District  under  number  3679  in  Day 
Book  'Q.'"  or  for  informal  reference,  as  plan, 
or  document,  "  3679  Q."  A  very  common  mistake 
in  ordinary  practice  is  reference  to  an  instrument 
by  its  registered  number  alone,  as  "  Instrument 
registered,  etc.,  under  number  3679."  Since  it 
will  be  seen  that  there  are  as  many  instruments 
registered  in  any  registry  office  under  any  given 
number  as  there  are  completed  day  books,  it  is 
unnecessary  to  further  establish  the  fallacy  of 
this  practice,  particularly  when  it  is  understood 
that  instruments  are  indexed  and  filed  for  refer- 
ence in  a  registry  office,  in  sequence  of  numbering, 
under  the  letter  or  number  used  to  designate  the 
particular  day  book  that  they  were  registered  in. 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND  23 

17.  In  cases  where  it  is  practicable  to  see  the  Good  practice 
Certificate  of  Title  of,  or  including,  the  land  which  to  c°Py  e3?st' 

'         f     m  c  ing  title  when 

it  is  desired  to  describe,  it  is  almost  always  good  describing 
practice  to  follow  the  actual  wording  of  the  de-  same  land- 
scription  contained  in  the  Certificate  as  far  as  the 
same  is  applicable.    For  one  thing,  except  in  the 
comparatively  few  cases  where   there  is  some- 
thing radically  wrong  about  it,  it  will  be  accepted 
without  question  by  the  registrar. 


RAILWAY  PLANS 

18.  There  is  a  fourth  class  of  plans  which  may  Nature  of 
be  referred  to  as  Railway  Plans,  being  plans  of  railwayplai18- 
surveys  of  railway  right  of  way  on  which  descrip- 
tions of  land,  and  titles  to  the  same,  are  based. 
Railway  plans  were  called  into  existence  by  the 
provisions  of  various  Railway  Acts  which  have 
been  passed  by  the  Dominion  and  Provincial 
Legislatures.    The  object  of  these  plans,  as  plainly  Purposes  of 
contemplated  in  the  said  Acts,  is  to  give  public  railwayplans- 
notice  of  intention  on  the  part  of  the  promoting 
railway  companies,  first  to  the  Government  whose 
approval  and  sanction  are  necessary  before  the 
privileges   granted   to   the   company   under   its 
charter  can  be  given  effect  to  in  respect  of  the 
proposed  line,  and  secondly  to  the  owners  of  all 
land  through  which  the  line  passes.    With  a  view 
to  promoting  the  second  of  these  objects,  it  is 


24  DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 

provided  that  railway  plans  shall  be  deposited  in 
the  land  registry  office  for  the  district  in  which 
the  land  affected  occurs.  It  followed  that,  be- 
cause these  plans  were  of  record  in  the  local  land 
registry  offices,  and  because  there  was  no  other 

Why  railway  available  base  of  description  that  was  of  record, 

plans  us^  »8  they  came  to  be  generally  recognized  and  accepted 
as  a  base  of  description  for  title  to  railway  lands. 

Inferior  char-  Unfortunately  the  class  of  plans  made  under  the 
Pr°visions  of  tne  Railway  Acts  and  approved  by 
those  who  administer  the  said  Acts  as  being  suffi- 
cient for  the  purposes  thereof,  lack  the  essential 
characteristics  which  any  plan  intended  to  be 
used  as  a  base  of  description  for  land  titles  should 

Wherein  rail-  possess.     In  the  first  place  such  a  railway  plan 

way  plans  not  jg  onjy  &  pian  Qf  survev    m  so  far  as  the  actual 
"  sufficient.''  .  .  .       .        , 

right  of  way  is  concerned;  in  respect  to  the  land 
boundaries  shown  on  such  a  plan  it  is  merely  a 
sketch,  most  of  the  ties  shown  on  land  boundaries, 
from  the  intersection  of  the  centre  line  of  the 
right  of  way  to  alleged  corners  of  the  parcel  of 
land,  being  derived  from  calculation  based  on 
the  assumption  of  a  theoretically  perfect  original 
survey,  or  having  been  carelessly  and  incorrectly 
made.  The  serious  feature  of  the  above  is  that 
the  survey  of  the  right  of  way  itself  is  not  posted 
or  marked  on  the  ground  in  any  way,  and  its 
existence  as  a  matter  of  record  depends  on  the 
spurious  ties  given  on  the  plan. 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND  25 

NOTE. — Lest  it  should  appear  that  this  state- 
ment contains  an  exaggeration,  I  may  say  that  3 
years  experience  as  a  surveyor  to  a  land  titles  office 
has  shown  me  that  whenever  a  subsequent  and 
carefully  made  survey  of  land  abutting  on  a  rail- 
way right  of  way  has  been  made,  and  a  plan  of 
same  presented  for  registration,  'fully  one  half  of 
the  land  ties  shown  on  the  railway  right  of  way 
plan  have  been  found  to  be  incorrect — often 
grossly  so. 

In  the  second  place  the  survey  represented  by 
such  a  railway  plan  is  very  rarely  made  by  an 
authorized  surveyor,  but,  generally,  by  a  railway 
engineer  whose  whole  interest  in  the  work  is 
centred  in  the  actual  right  of  way  and  who  cares 
nothing  whatever  about  the  land  connections 
thereof. 

In  the  third  place  the  Government  officials 
who  pass  upon  railway  plans  can  only  require 
that  they  shall  fulfil  the  conditions  prescribed  in 
the  Railway  Acts,  which  do  not  contemplate 
their  being  used  as  a  basis  of  title. 

As  a  result,  there  are  innumerable  faulty  descrip- 
tions contained  in  right  of  way  titles,  which  will 
all,  eventually,  have  to  be  rectified  at  an  immense 
cost.  In  recognition  of  this  fact  the  Governments 
of  the  Provinces  of  Manitoba,  Saskatchewan  and 
Alberta  have  passed  legislation  refusing  to  issue 
titles  to  railway  right  of  way  until  plans  of  a 
posted  survey  of  the  right  of  way,  made  by  an 


26  DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 

authorized  surveyor  in  accordance  with  the  pro- 
visions of  the  Provincial  Surveys  Acts,  or,  in  the 
case  of  Manitoba,  the  Real  Property  Act,  have 
been  registered  in  the  proper  land  titles  office. 
How  regis-         19.  Since  railway  plans  are  plans  of  general 
tered'  record  that  affect  the  titles  to  all  lands  through 

which  the  railway  is  shown  to  pass,  they  are  regis- 
tered as  independent  instruments  and  should  be 
identified  in  descriptions  of  right  of  way  by  refer- 
ence to  the  registration  marks  of  the  plan. 

Owing  to  the  fact  that  railway  plans  are  de- 
posited hi  land  titles  offices  as  matters  of  record 
with  a  view  to  their  future  use  as  bases  of  descrip- 
tion whenever  the  railway  company  shall  desire 
to  acquire  title  to  the  right  of  way  across  any 
particular  parcel  of  land  shown  thereon,  and  the 
further  fact  that  they  do  not  in  any  way  affect 
the  title  to  such  land  until  so  used,  it  is  frequently 
the  case  that  they  are  not  registered  in  the  com- 
mon register  of  instruments  which  have  a  direct 
and  immediate  effect  on  existing  land  titles,  but 
are  registered  in  a  special  register.  Before  under- 
taking to  draw  descriptions  of  railway  lands, 
therefore,  it  is  necessary  to  make  careful  enquiry 
as  to  the  correct  designation  of  the  railway  plan 
on  which  it  is  proposed  to  base  the  description. 


The  Use  of  Natural  Boundaries  in  Descriptions 
of  Land. 

20.  Natural  boundaries  include  the  high  water  Definition  of 
mark  of  seas,  lakes,  or  rivers,  the  centre  line  of  term  "nat~ 

ural  bound- 
Creeks  and  the  foot  or  the  top  of  hills.  aries." 

21.  In  the  case  of  lands  fronting  on  seas,  lakes  High  water 
or  considerable  rivers  the  high  water  mark  is  the  far^  of  watfr 

frontage  only 

only  proper  boundary  to  adopt,  the  object  being  proper 

to  ensure  that  the  land  shall  include  the  water  boundary  to 

adopt. 

frontage  and  the  high  water  mark  being  the  only 
possible  boundary  having  flexibility  enough  to 
allow  for  changes  in  the  actual  water  front  due 
to  encroachment  or  recession  of  the  water.  It  is  H.  w.  M. 

bad  practice  to  attempt  to  define  the  high  water  shou|d  nf  be 

it  x-    i  i.  ngldly  de- 

mark  by  mathematical  survey  in  such  a  way  as  fined  by  sur- 

to  preclude  any  change  hi  the  position  of  the  vey- 
boundary  whatever  the  water  may  do.  Any  sur- 
vey of  a  high  water  mark  should  be  made  only 
for  the  purpose  of  plotting  the  same  or  computing 
the  area  of  land  fronting  on  it,  and  not  with  any 
idea  of  rigidly  defining  the  boundary  of  the  land. 
For  instance,  let  us  consider  the  case  of  a  frac- 
tional quarter  section  of  land,  containing  100  Example, 
acres  and  fronting  on  a  navigable  river  with  a 
swift  current  which  is  constantly  cutting  away  its 
27 


28  DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 

banks  on  the  one  hand  or  forming  new  land  on 
the  other.  Let  us  assume  that  the  high  water 
mark  was  accurately  determined  at  the  time  of 
survey  and  that  the  said  high  water  mark,  tied 
in  by  offsets  from  properly  connected  traverse 
lines,  was  made  the  boundary  of  the  quarter  sec- 
tion as  a  surveyed  line.  First  let  us  suppose  that 
the  river  encroaches  on  the  quarter  section  and 
cuts  away  20  acres  from  it.  This  20  acres,  having 
become  part  of  the  bed  of  a  navigable  river,  re- 
verts to  the  Crown.  Thus  we  have  an  existing 
title  for  100  acres  of  land  while  there  are  only  80 
acres  within  its  described  boundaries.  Secondly 
let  us  suppose  that  the  action  of  the  river  causes 
20  acres  of  land  to  form  in  front  of  the  quarter 
section.  The  result  is  that,  while  the  original 
100  acres  are  undisturbed,  the  land  has  lost  its 
character  as  water  frontage  and,  with  it,  much  of 
its  value.  If  the  high  water  mark  of  the  river, 
without  any  attempt  at  surveyed  definition,  had 
been  used  in  the  description  the  title  would,  at 
different  times,  have  included  anywhere  from  80 
to  120  acres  and  the  real  intention  of  the  original 
grant  would,  at  all  times,  have  been  fulfilled. 
Area  of  land  22.  Owing  to  the  fact  that  the  area  of  land 
wate^shouid  ^rontmS  on  water  is  liable  to  actual  change  in 
be  described  extent,  any  specific  acreage  given  in  a  description 


as     approxi-  of^  or  a  ^j^je  ^  ^^  jancj  s]lou}(j  always  be  quali- 
fied by  the  use  of  the  word  "approximately." 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND  29 

For  instance,  "and  containing  approximately 
100  acres  be  the  same  more  or  less,"  or  "and 
containing  approximately  100  acres  as  the  same 
may  be  or  may  become." 

It  may  be  argued  that  the  use  of  the  words  Use  of  words 
"more  or  less"  is  sufficient  to  cover  any  possible  ,  moreor 

less  '    as    ap- 

variation  of  acreage,  due  to  whatever  cause.    On  plied    to 
reflection,  however,  it  will  appear  that  the  words  acrea«e- 
"more  or  less"  are  only  intended  to  cover  any 
variation  of  acreage  due  to  error  in  computation 
of  the  area,  and  cannot  be  held  to  cover  any 
actual  change  in  the  area  itself. 

23.  A  high  water  mark  that  is  sharply  defined  m  defined 


is,  as  has  been  said,  a  very  good  natural  boundary,  ^ 
but  there  is  an  immense  amount  of  land  which 
fronts  on  marshes  that  intervene  between  that 
which  is  indubitably  land  and  that  which  is  in- 
dubitably water.  In  such  cases  it  is  often  im- 
possible to  define  the  high  water  mark  with  any 
degree  of  precision.  Even  so  it  is  all  the  more 
necessary  to  use  the  term  "high  water  mark"  and 
to  rely  on  its  flexibility  of  meaning  under  differ- 
ent circumstances. 

Any  specification  of  acreage  in  a  description  of 
such  a  parcel  should  be  :  — 

(a).  Expressed  in  terms  giving  the  greatest 
possible  latitude,  or 

(6).  Omitted  altogether,  or 

(c).  Described  as  containing  so  many  acres  of 


30  DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 

high  land  "together  with  all  the  low  lying  land 

lying  within  the  above  described  boundaries/' — - 

of  which  "the  high  water  mark"  is  one. 

Centre  of          24.  The  centre  line  of  a  creek  may  be  a  very 

creek  as  nat-        ^  natural  boundary  in  cases  where  the  creek 

ural  bound- 
ary, has  a  well  denned  channel  and  is  of  a  size  to  en- 
sure its  permanency. 

Good  in  cases      Even  a  small  creek  may  make  a  good  common 
where  land  is  boundary   between   two   parcels   of   agricultural 

of  small  value. 

lands  which  are  of  small  value,  and  there  may  be 
good  reasons  for  adopting  such  a  creek  as  a  bound- 
ary which,  while  contrary  to  the  best  principles 
of  good  conveyancing,  should  nevertheless  be 
taken  into  consideration.  For  instance,  take  the 
case  of  a  quarter  section  with  a  creek  running 
diagonally  through  it  and  having  steep  rough 
banks.  From  the  point  of  view  of  working  the 
land  economically  the  two  halves  as  divided  by 
the  creek  would  have  a  very  much  greater  value 
than  if  they  were  divided  by  a  straight  line 
leaving  small  corners  of  arable  land  on  either  side 
of  the  creek. 

Why  creeks       In  a  city  or  town,  however,  the  water  which 
should  not  be  flowg  in  &  gmg^  creek  win  eventuany  be  absorbed 

adopted  as 

boundaries      into  the  municipal  drainage  system,  while  the 

in  cities.         bed  of  the  creek  will  become  diverted,  excavated, 

filled  in  or  otherwise  obliterated.    In  the  City  of 

Winnipeg  litigation  over  the  question  of  what 

had  been  the  true  position  of  a  small  creek  of  this 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND  31 

kind,  the  position  of  which  had  been  obliterated, 
cost  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars,  and  the 
same  thing  has  occurred  in  regard  to  other  cases 
elsewhere. 

Hence  it  may  be  accepted  as  a  general  rule  General  rule, 
that  no  small  creek  should  ever  be  adopted  as  a 
common  boundary  between  two  parcels  of  land 
which  have,  or  appear  likely  to  have,  a  value 
above  that  of  agricultural  land. 

25.  The  use  of  the  foot  or  top  of  hills  as  natural  Hills  must 
boundaries  should  always  be  avoided,  on  account  ^dlpted6  as 
of  their  lack  of  definition  and  the  possibility  of  natural 
change  in  their  position,  owing  to  slides  or  erosion  boundanes- 
by  water.    It  is  often  desirable  to  establish  the  foot 
or  top  of  a  hill  as  a  land  boundary,  and  this  may 
very  properly  be  done  but  such  a  boundary  must 
in  all  cases  be  established  as  a  surveyed  line.    For 
instance,  the  inining  regulations  which  were  in  Example, 
force  in  the  Klondike  gold  mining  camp  defined 
the  most  valuable  class  of  claims — creek  claims — 
as  extending  from  "base  to  base  of  hill."    As  the 
country  is  of  glacial  formation,  and  what  may  at 
one  time  have  been  a  sharply  defined  base  of  hill 
is  generally  overlaid  with  from  10  to  60  feet  of 
slide  matter,  and  as,  moreover,  the  values  in- 
volved were  often  enormous,  the  result  was  an 
endless  succession  of  law  suits  on  the  interpreta- 
tion of  this  particular  definition.    The  reason  why 
the  law  suits  were  endless  was  that,  owing  to  the 


32  DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 

impossibility  of  applying  the  theoretical  provi- 
sions of  the  regulations  to  the  actual  conditions, 
each  case  had  to  be  decided  on  its  own  merits  and 
it  was  not  possible  to  create  precedents.  In  their 
efforts  to  render  equitable  decisions  the  Courts 
were  obliged  to  listen  to,  and  give  consideration 
to,  fictitious  arguments  as  to  where  the  base  of 
the  hill  ought  to  be,  rather  than  where  it  actually 
was.* 

Example.  To  take  a  more  ordinary  case:  Some  years  ago 

the  Northerly  40  acres  of  Lot  27  in  the  Edmonton 
Settlement  was  sold,  described  as  follows: — "All 
that  portion  of  Lot  35  in  the  Edmonton  Settle- 
ment in  the  Province  of  Alberta  containing  40 
acres  more  or  less  and  lying  to  the  North  of  a 
line  drawn  parallel  to  and  distant  three  feet 
Southerly  from  the  high  bank  of  the  North  Sas- 
katchewan River."  As  the  bank  referred  to  is  by 
no  means  sharply  defined  it  is  difficult  to  imagine 
a  more  perfect  example  of  a  bad  description. 
After  a  time  the  owners  of  the  Southerly  portion 
subdivided  their  land  and  the  surveyor  employed 
defined  the  above  boundary  by  a  straight  line 

*  I  distinctly  remember  hearing  a  well  known  member 
of  the  Dominion  Geological  Survey  give  evidence  to 
the  effect  that,  in  his  opinion,  the  "base  of  the  hill"  was 
half  way  up  an  adjacent  mountain,  basing  his  opinion 
on  the  probable  position  of  said  base  of  hill  during  the 
Pliocene  Period. 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND  33 

boundary  of  two  courses.  The  plan  of  subdivision 
was  refused  registration  until  the  description  was 
interpreted  by  an  order  of  the  Court,  after  all 
interested  persons  had  been  heard  in  the  matter. 
In  this  case,  therefore,  a  description  based  on  the 
position  of  a  hill  top  was  found  to  be  insufficient 
to  define  the  boundary  of  the  land  described  for 
purposes  of  legal  occupation. 


The  Use  of  the  Words  "  More  or  Less  "  in 
Descriptions  of  Land. 

Object  of  us-      26.  The  words  "more  or  less,"  when  applied 
ing  wor  s       J.Q  a  distance  given  for  one  of  the  courses  in  a 

more  or 

less."  description  of  land,  are  intended  to  cover  any 

variation  in  such  distance  from  that  given  which 
may  appear  on  re-measurement  or  re-calculation. 

Surveying  Theoretically  speaking  surveying  is  an  exact 

lively1  Txact   science>  but  m  practice  it  is  only  relatively  so. 

science.  Elements  of  personal  exactitude  and  skill  in  mak- 
ing surveys,  variations  of  temperature,  slight 
inherent  errors  in  the  manufacture  of  measuring 
tapes  and  differences  caused  by  variation  of  ten- 
sion in  using  them,  all  have  their  effect  in  making 
field  surveying  only  relatively  accurate.  In 
describing  a  course  between  two  actual  points  on 
the  ground  there  can,  of  course,  be  only  one  cor- 
rect distance,  but  the  conveyancer  is  not  justified 
in  assuming  that  the  distance  which  the  surveyor 
measured  between  these  two  points,  and  put  on 
his  plan,  is  exactly  correct.  Nevertheless  it  is 
the  actual  distance  between  the  two  points  that 
he  desires  to  describe,  and  he  is  not  concerned  that 
the  distance  given  in  the  conveyance  does  not 
agree  with  such  actual  distance  within  the  limits 
34 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND  35 

of  precision  of  the  survey.    Hence  the  use  of  the 
words  "more  or  less."    For  instance,  let  us  take 
the  following  very  simple  example: — "Commenc- 
ing at  a  post  planted;  Thence  due  North  1,000  Example, 
feet  more  or  less  to  an  iron  post  and  mound." 

In  the  above  example  suppose  the  surveyor  to 
have  made  an  error  in  chain  ing  the  distance  and 
that  this  distance  is  in  reality  1004  feet.  What  is 
it  that  the  conveyancer  desires  to  describe?  Is  it 
1,000  feet  of  land,  or  the  actual  distance  between 
the  two  posts?  Why,  the  actual  distance  of  course. 
But  the  description  describes  the  course  in  two 
ways — first  as  being  the  distance  between  the  two 
posts — and  secondly  as  being  1,000  feet,  (which 
latter  is  found  by  later  and  more  accurate  meas- 
urement to  be  wrong  in  that  it  is  1,004  feet  in- 
stead of  1,000).  Hence  there  is  a  confliction  of 
evidence  in  the  description  as  to  the  length  of 
this  course,  which  is  overcome  by  the  use  of  the 
words  "more  or  less,"  but  which,  if  the  said  words 
were  omitted,  would  remain  unaccountable. 

27.  The  rule  is,  therefore,  that  "Every  distance  Rule  when 
given  in  a  description  of  land  as  representing  the  W05  s  „  more 

or  less 

actual  distance  between  two  points  established  should  be  ap- 

on  the  ground  should  be  qualified  by  the  words  phed  to  dis" 

I      »»  tances- 

more  or  less  . 

28.  In  the  two   preceding  sections  we  have  Example, 
dealt  with  descriptions  of  surveyed  parcels  of 

land,  but  parcels  of  land  which  have  not  been  sur- 


36  DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 

veyed  are  frequently  described  by  metes  and 
bounds,  and  referred  to  some  more  or  less  remote 
survey.  The  following  may  be  taken  as  an  ex- 
ample:— "Commencing  at  a  point  on  the  South- 
erly boundary  of  the  South  East  quarter  of  Sec- 
tion 20  in  Township  46,  Range  23  West  of  the 
Fourth  Meridian  distant  660  feet  Westerly  from 
the  South  East  corner  thereof;  Thence  Northerly 
and  parallel  to  the  Easterly  boundary  of  said 
quarter  section  660  feet;  Thence  Westerly  and 
parallel  to  said  Southerly  boundary  660  feet; 
Thence  Southerly  and  parallel  to  said  Easterly 
boundary  660  feet;  Thence  Easterly  and  following 
said  Southerly  boundary  660  feet  to  the  point  of 
commencement." 

To  qualify  any  of  the  distances  given  in  the 
above  example  by  the  words  "more  or  less" 
would  be  to  render  the  description  indeterminate 
and  absurd.  All  the  said  distances,  being  purely 
theoretic  and  not  subject  to  discrepancies  of 
survey  on  the  ground,  are,  and  must  be,  as  exact 
as  the  science  of  mathematics  itself. 

Rule  when  29.  The  rule  is,  therefore,  that  "Every  distance 
or°iess"  must  given  in  a  description  of  land  which  is  not  sub- 
not  be  applied  ject  to  the  position  of  points  established  on  the 
to  distances.  gr^^  must  never  be  quaiifieci  by  the  words 

"more  or  less." 


The  Use  of  Astronomical  Bearings  in  Descrip- 
tions of  Land. 

30.  The  use  of  bearings  in  describing  bound-  Object  of  use 
aries  of  land  is  employed  to  define  the  direction  of  °f  beann«s  m 

descriptions. 

such  boundaries  from  their  previously  described 
starting  point  in  relation  to  the  meridian  passing 
through  such  point,  or  such  other  meridian  as 
they  may  be  referred  to. 

31.  The  reason  why  it  is  usual  to  describe  the  Why  bearings 
direction  of  lines  of  survey  by  bearings  rather  £nefe1r^rble  to 
than  by  angular  measurement  with  some  con-  measure- 
tiguous  line  of  the  survey  is  twofold.    First,  be-  ments- 
cause  to  describe  the  direction  of  the  lines  of  a 

survey  in  reference  to  the  direction  of  the  pre- 
ceding course  must  always  be  cumbersome  and 
give  more  occasion  for  errors,  both  on  the  part 
of  the  person  making  the  description  and  those 
who  subsequently  have  to  interpret  it,  than  if 
the  method  of  description  by  bearings  were  em- 
ployed. Secondly,  because  the  method  of  descrip- 
tion by  bearings  possesses  the  great  advantage 
that  the  description  of  each  line  is  independently 
described  in  regard  to  a  constant  line  of  reference 
.having  a  positive  and  a  negative  direction: — to 
wit,  the  local  astronomical  meridian,  of  which 
37 


38  DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 

the  North  Pole  may  be  regarded  as  the  positive 
end  and  the  zenith  of  the  point  described  as  the 
negative  end.  This  tends  to  the  utmost  facility 
and  lucidity  of  description  because  each  line  of 
which  the  bearing  is  given  in  a  description  repre- 
sents a  definite  and  positive  direction  to  the 
mind's  eye  of  any  person  reading  such  description. 
Example.  As  an  instance  of  this,  and  in  order  to  show  how 

difficult  it  is  to  make  a  clear  description  in  which 
the  method  of  angular  measurement  is  used  to 
define  the  direction  of  the  various  courses,  the 
two  following  examples  are  given,  in  which  the 
same  parcel  of  land  is  described,  (a)  by  employ- 
ing bearings  to  define  the  direction  of  its  bound- 
aries, and  (fr)  by  employing  angular  measure- 
ments for  the  same  purpose.  The  preamble,  which 
is  the  same  for  both  descriptions,  is  as  follows: — 

"'All  that  portion  of  the  North  East  quarter  of 
Section  23  in  Township  46,  Range  23  West  of  the 
4th  Meridian  in  the  Province  of  Alberta  as  the 
same  is  shown  on  a  plan  of  survey  of  the  said 
Township  approved  and  confirmed  by  the  Sur- 
veyor General  of  Canada  at  Ottawa  on  the  4th 
day  of  May,  1894,  which  plan  is  of  record  in  the 
Department  of  the  Interior  and  also  in  the  Land 
Titles  Office  for  the  North  Alberta  Land  Regis- 
tration District  which  may  be  more  particularly 
known  and  described  as  follows : — " 

(a).  "Commencing  at  an  iron  post  planted  at  a 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND  39 

point  distant  10.73  chains  more  or  less  on  a  bear- 
ing of  North  73°  25'  West  from  a  point  on  the 
Easterly  boundary  of  said  quarter  section  distant 
14.02  chains  Southerly  from  the  North  East 
corner  thereof;  Thence  North  73°  25'  West  a 
distance  of  12.00  chains  more  or  less  to  an  iron 
post  planted;  Thence  South  28°  02'  West  a  dis- 
tance of  14.00  chains  more  or  less  to  an  iron  post 
planted;  Thence  due  East  16.00  chains  more  or 
less  to  an  iron  post  planted;  Thence  North  13° 
06'  East  9.18  chains  more  or  less  to  the  point  of 
commencement  the  whole  containing  three  and 
eighty-hundredths  acres  be  the  same  more  or  less 
and  as  shown  red  on  the  plan  of  survey  attached 
hereto." 

(6).  "Commencing  at  an  iron  post  planted  the 
position  of  which  may  be  described  as  follows: — 
Commencing  at  the  North  East  corner  of  said 
quarter  section:  Thence  Southerly  and  following 
the  Easterly  boundary  of  said  quarter  section  a 
distance  of  14.02  chains  to  a  point;  Thence  in  a 
straight  line  making  a  deflection  angle  to  the  right 
with  the  last  described  course  of  106°  35'  a 
distance  of  10.73  chains  more  or  less  to  said  iron 
post  and  point  of  commencement;  Thence  continu- 
ing in  the  same  straight  line  as  that  "described 
between  said  point  and  iron  post  a  distance  of 
12.00  chains  more  or  less  to  an  iron  post  planted; 
Thence  in  a  straight  line  making  a  deflection 


40  DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 

angle  to  the  left  with  the  last  described  course  of 
78°  38'  a  distance  of  14.00  chains  more  or  less 
to  an  iron  post  planted;  Thence  in  a  straight  line 
making  a  deflection  angle  to  the  left  with  the  last 
described  course  of  118°  02'  a  distance  of  16.00 
chains  more  or  less  to  an  iron  post  planted;  Thence 
in  a  straight  line  making  a  deflection  angle  to  the 
left  with  the  last  described  course  of  76°  54'  a 
distance  of  9.18  chains  more  or  less  to  the  point  of 
commencement,  the  whole  containing  three  and 
eighty-hundredths  acres  be  the  same  more  or  less 
and  as  shown  colored  red  on  the  plan  of  survey 
attached  hereto." 

teariTs  *  32*  For  Seneral  use  in  descriptions  of  land  it  is 

should  be  better  to  adopt  quadrant  bearings  than  bear- 
used.  mgs  from  the  North  meridian  from  0°  to  360° 
through  East,  South  and  West  and  back  to  North 
again.  The  reason  for  this  is  simply  that  quad- 
rant bearings  are  more  commonly  understood 
than  the  other,  and  descriptions  should  always 
be  made  as  simple  and  universally  intelligible  as 
possible. 

33.  In  theory,  all  bearings  given  in  a  description 
of  land  as  representing  the  actual  direction  of  a 
line  between  two  points  established  on  the  ground 
should  be  qualified  by  the  words  "more  or  less," 
applied  to  the  number  of  degrees  and  minutes 
given  in  the  bearing,  in  order  to  allow  for  possible 
discrepancies  of  survey  and  for  the  same  reasons 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND  41 

given  in  section  24  having  reference  to  the  qualifi- 
cation of  distances  between  similar  points.  For 
instance,  "Commencing  at  a  post  planted;  Thence 
North  41°  33'  more  or  less  West  1,000  feet  more 
or  less  to  an  iron  post  and  mound." 

However,  it  is  not  usual  to  find  this  rule  ob-  Bearings  do 
served,  even  hi  the  best  practice,  and  the  reason  Absolutely* 
for  this  may  be  found  in  the  fact  that  an  astronom-  govern  direo- 
ical  bearing,  when  used  in  a  description  of  land,  tlon  of  Unes- 
cannot  be  considered  to  absolutely  govern  the 
direction  of  the  line  described,  but  only  to  serve 
as  a  close  indication  of  it.  The  principal  reason 
for  this  is  that  the  bearing  of  a  line  is  usually  given 
without  specified  reference  to  any  particular 
meridian;  it  therefore  fails  to  define  the  direction 
of  the  line,  unless  it  is  assumed  as  implied  that 
the  bearing  is  referred  to  the  meridian  of  the 
point  of  commencement,  which  assumption  would 
not,  as  a  rule,  be  justified  by  the  facts.  For  in- 
stance, suppose  the  bearing  of  a  line  to  be  given 
as  North  45°  00'  East,  and  that  subsequent 
observation  from  the  point  of  commencement 
reveals  the  fact  that  the  actual  bearing  of  the 
said  line  is  North  45°  05'  East.  It  is  nevertheless 
a  fact  that  the  bearing  of  said  line  is  North  45° 
00'  East  if  referred  to  the  meridian  of  a  point 
about  five  miles  East  of  the  point  of  commence- 
ment. As  a  matter  of  fact,  most  of  the  bearings 
which  occur  in  descriptions  of  land  are  derived 


42 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


Rule  when 
bearings 
given  in  de- 
scriptions 
should  be 
qualified. 


Showing  how 
bearings  may 
be  referred  to 
special 
meridian. 


from  those  shown  on  the  departmental  plans  of 
the  original  surveys,  rather  than  from  observa- 
tion. Further,  the  bearings  shown  on  such  de- 
partmental plans,  with  the  exception  of  those 
shown  for  the  central  meridian  of  townships,  are 
not  themselves  true  astronomical  bearings,  but 
are  referred,  in  accordance  with  a  convention  of 
the  Dominion  Lands  Surveys  Act,  to  said  central 
meridian.  It  follows  that  the  bearings  given  in 
descriptions  of  land  would  hardly  ever  bear  the 
test  of  verification  by  observation,  although  most 
of  them  would  be  shown  to  be  approximately 
correct,  and  that  the  whole  question  of  the  use 
of  bearings  in  descriptions  is  established  on  a  less 
accurate  basis  of  survey  than  that  of  the  use  of 
distances. 

34.  In  a  description  of  land  in  which  the  bear- 
ing given  for  any  line,  which  is  also  defined  as 
lying   between   two   points   established   on   the 
ground  is  referred  to  a  specified  meridian,  the 
direction  of  the  line  is  defined  in  two  ways  and 
such  bearing  should  be  qualified  by  the  use  of 
the  words  "more  or  less"  applied  to  the  number  of 
degrees  and  minutes  given  in  the  bearing. 

35.  The  bearings  of  lines  of  survey  may  be  re- 
ferred to  a  specified  meridian  in  descriptions  of 
land  in  various  ways,  of  which  two  are  shown  in 
the  following  examples,  for  both  of  which  the 
following  preamble  will  serve: — 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND  43 

"All  that  portion  of  the  North  East  quarter  of  Example. 
Section  23  in  Township  46,  Range  23  West  of 
the  4th  Meridian  in  the  Province  of  Alberta  as 
the  same  is  shown  on  a  plan  of  survey  of  the  said 
Township  approved  and  confirmed  by  the  Sur- 
veyor General  of  Canada  at  Ottawa  on  the  4th 
day  of  May,  1894,  which  plan  is  of  record  in  the 
Department  of  the  Interior  and  also  hi  the  Land 
Titles  Office  for  the  North  Alberta  Land  Registra- 
tion District  which  may  be  more  particularly 
known  and  described  as  follows : — 

(a).  "Commencing  at  the  South  East  corner 
of  said  quarter  section;  Thence  North  45°  00' 
more  or  less  West  assuming  the  Easterly  boundary 
of  said  quarter  section  to  have  a  bearing  of  due 
North  a  distance  of  1,000  feet  more  or  less  to  an 
iron  post  planted." 

NOTE. — In  view  of  the  fact  that  this  book  is  in- 
tended to  be  a  text  book  for  the  guidance  of  prac- 
tical survey  students,  I  wish  to  say  that,  although 
I  feel  that  the  rule  prescribed  in  section  34  is  a 
logical  and  unavoidable  deduction  in  the  theory 
of  description,  it  is  one  that  is  very  rarely  observed 
in  common  practice,  and  I  do  not  know  of  its -ever 
having  been  insisted  upon  by  any  Board  of  Ex- 
aminers or  Master  of  Titles. 

(6).  "Commencing  at  the  South  East  corner 
of  said  quarter  section;  Thence  North  45°  00' 
more  or  less  West  which  bearing  and  all  other 


44  DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 

bearings  given  in  the  following  description  are 
derived  from  the  bearing  of  the  Easterly  boundary 
of  said  quarter  section  as  the  same  is  shown  on 
said  plan  a  distance  of  1,000  feet  more  or  less  to 
an  iron  post  planted." 
When  proper  36.  It  is  very  usual  in  common  practice  to  find 

to   describe       j^  described  ag  «the  North  half  »  Qr  «the  East 
land    as 

"North          half,"  of  a  parcel  of  land.    When  the  boundaries 

hafin°if          °^  ^e  Parce^  are  snown  on  tne  Plan  as  being  due 
parcel.  North,  South,  East  and  West,  and  the  boundaries 

on  the  ground  may  reasonably  be  assumed  to  be 
very  nearly  so,  there  can  be  no  objection  to  this 
practice,  except  that  such  a  description  is  always 
subject  to  any  discrepancy  on  the  ground  in  the 
survey  referred  to,  and,  for  that  reason,  a  descrip- 
tion by  metes  and  bounds  is  generally  preferable. 
When  im-  jn  a  great  many  cases,  however,  the  boundaries 

describe  land  °f  suc^  a  Parcel  are  not  due  North,  South,  East 
as  "North     Or  West  and  then  the  description  fails  to  express 

half,"  etc.          , ,       ,          .    ,  ,,   . ,  .         . 

the  true  intent  of  the  conveyance  in  ninety-nine 

cases  out  of  a  hundred,  since  there  can  be  no 

doubt,  as  a  matter  of  technical  description,  that 

Technical  def-  the  North  half  of  a  parcel  of  land  is  all  that  part 

^xT10?u°i!    •»»  of  such  parcel,  being  one  half  of  the  total  area 

North  half 

of  a  parcel  of  thereof,  which  lies  to  the  North  of  a  due  East  and 
land.  West  line  bisecting  such  parcel,  whereas,  in  al- 

most all  cases,  the  intention  is  to  convey  a  part 
which  shall  be  bounded  on  the  South  by  a  line 
drawn  parallel  to  and  equidistant  from  the  North- 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND  45 

erly  and  Southerly  boundaries  thereof.  This  is 
most  frequently  found  in  descriptions  of  parts  of 
city  or  town  lots,  and  there  are  thousands  of 
titles,  in  many  registry  offices,  which  are  based 
on  faulty  descriptions  such  as  the  above,  and 
which  remain  as  a  monument  to  the  incompetence 
of  the  conveyancer  and  the  examining  staff  of 
the  registry  office  alike.  However  the  general 
effect  is  not  so  serious  as  might  be  supposed;  the 
intention  of  most  of  such  titles  is  usually  so  mani- 
fest that  it  is  accepted  without  question  by  the 
parties  affected,  or,  if  a  dispute  arises,  it  can 
generally  be  enforced  by  an  order  of  a  competent 
Court. 

37.  The  rule  is — "That  no  part  of  any  original  Rule  when 
parcel  of  land  should  ever  be  described  as  the  J^J*^ 
North,  South,  East  or  West  part,  as  the  case  scribed  as 
may  be,  unless  such  original  parcel  is  quadri-  "^rth" 
lateral  and  the  boundaries  thereof  are  due  North 

and  South  or  East  and  West." 

38.  It  is  also  quite  common  to  find  land  de-  Improper  use 
scribed  as  "the  Northerly  one  quarter"  of  a  parcel  ? 

of  land.  As  the  words  "Northerly,"  "South-  etc. 
erly,"  "Easterly,"  and  "Westerly"  can  only 
properly  be  used  to  indicate  a  general  direction, 
and  have  no  precise  meaning,  such  a  description 
is  hi  the  nature  of  a  mere  blunder.  These  words, 
used  in  the  above  sense,  should  never  be  used  in 
any  description  of  land. 


46 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


Magnetic 
bearings 
never  to  be 
used  in  de- 
scriptions of 
land. 


39.  Magnetic  bearings,  or  bearings  that  are 
derived  from  the  Magnetic  North  Pole,  should 
never,  under  any  circumstances,  be  used  in  de- 
scriptions of  land.  One  reason  for  this  is  that  such 
bearings  are  incapable  of  being  determined  with 
a  sufficient  degree  of  precision — say  within  fifteen 
minutes.  The  chief  reason,  however,  is  that,  for 
causes  which  have  never  been  scientifically  deter- 
mined, the  Magnetic  North  Pole  is  not  constant, 
but  varies  from  day  to  day  and  from  year  to  year. 
This  variation  has  been  recorded  at  Paris  in 
France  as  extending  from  11^  degrees  East  of 
true  North  in  the  year  1580  to  22J/£  degrees  West 
of  true  North  in  the  year  1814 — a  total  variation 
of  34  degrees.*  It  follows  that  bearings  derived 
from  the  Magnetic  North  Pole  vary  accordingly, 
so  that  a  line,  the  magnetic  bearing  of  which  was 
determined  as  being  Magnetic  North  10  degrees 
East  in  the  year  1800,  might  quite  possibly  have 
a  bearing  of  Magnetic  North  5  degrees  West  in 
the  year  1900.  That  is  to  say  that,  if  it  was  at- 
tempted to  re-establish  the  said  line  on  the  ground 
in  the  year  1900  from  a  known  point  of  commence- 
ment and  in  reference  to  the  magnetic  bearing 
recorded  for  it  in  the  year  1800,  it  would  be  15 
degrees  in  direction  out  of  place.  Therefore, 
since  the  principal  object  of  a  description  of  land 
is  to  establish  a  record  from  which  it  shall  be 

*  Gillespies'  Treatise  on  Surveying.    Article  278. 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND  47 

possible  to  identify  the  described  parcel  on  the 
ground,  it  will  be  seen  that  a  description  of  land 
in  which  the  direction  of  the  various  courses 
were  referred  to  the  Magnetic  North  Pole  would 
fail  to  fulfil  its  purpose. 


Description  of  the  Remainder  of  an  Original 
Parcel  of  Land 

Definition  of  40.  "An  original  parcel  of  land"  may  be  de- 
term  Orjs-  fined,  for  the  purposes  of  this  article,  as  any  sur- 
land."  veyed  parcel  of  land,  considered  as  an  undivided 

whole,  for  which  a  separate  title  exists. 

Definition  of  The  remainder  of  an  original  parcel  of  land  is 
mainder  "~  ^^  Park  wnic^  remains  after  one  or  more  parts 

have  been  previously  conveyed  by  description. 
A  remainder       41.  The  description  of  a  remainder  depends 

parts^  pTe-^  nOt  ^  °n  the  °riginal  title  to  the  whole  °f  the 

viously  con-  parcel  of  which  it  is  a  part,  but  must  also  be  made 
veyed.  subject  to  the  description  contained  in  any  exist- 

ing title  for  the  part,  or  parts,  previously  conveyed, 
and  the  rule  may  be  stated  as  follows: — "The 
Rule  for  de-  description  of  a  remainder  of  any  parcel  of  land 
remainder0  &  must  be  expressed  in  terms  of  the  remainder,  in 
such  a  way  as  to  be  subject  to  the  description 
contained  in  any  existing  title  for  a  part,  or  parts, 
of  said  parcel  which  has  been  previously  con- 
veyed." 

Object  of  42.  The  object  of  the  above  rule  is  to  prevent 

confliction  of  description  and  title  in  conveying 

a  number  of  small  parcels  of  land  by  description 

out  of  what  has  been  defined  in  section  38  as  an 

48 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND  49 

original  parcel  of  land.  Such  confliction  may  as- 
sume the  form  of  overlapping  of  adjacent  bound- 
aries, or  the  creation  of  small  strips  of  land  be- 
tween such  boundaries.  It  is  generally  caused  by 
the  acceptance  as  absolutely  correct  of  the  various 
measurements  shown  on  plans  of  survey  of  the 
property,  without  allowing  for  the  discrepancies 
to  which  all  surveys  are  subject. 

This  discrepancy  of  survey,  and  of  plans  of  Discrepancies 
survey,  has  already  been  referred  to  hi  section  24.  of  8T"7ey 

must  DC 

Its  lack  of  absolute  accuracy  constitutes  an  in-  taken  into  ac- 
separable  feature  of  the  practice  of  surveying,  and  count  m  wnt" 

ing    descnp- 

is  a  fact  which  must  be  accepted  as  such  by  all  tions. 
who  have  to  describe  land,  and  in  the  knowledge 
and  constant  consideration  of  which  they  must 
proceed.  Its  importance  in  relation  to  the  de- 
scription of  land  can  scarcely  be  over-estimated, 
or  emphasized  too  strongly.  For  instance,  a 
quarter  section  of  land  may  be  shown  on  a  de-  Example, 
partmental  plan  to  be  40.00  chains  square,  and 
to  contain  160  acres.  We  will  suppose  that  the 
owner  first  sells  "the  South  half"  of  said  quarter 
section  "containing  80  acres  more  or  less"  and 
subsequently  proposes  to  sell  the  remainder.  In 
this  case  the  remainder  can  only  properly  be 
described  as  "the  North  half  of  said  quarter 
section,  containing  80  acres  be  the  same  more 
or  less"  since  this  is  the  only  possible  form  of 
positive  description  that  cannot  conflict  with 


50  DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 

the  description  of  the  South  half  previously 
conveyed.  But  quite  frequently  the  purchaser 
demands  a  transfer  for  "the  North  20.00  chains 
of  said  quarter  section  containing  80  acres  be  the 
same  more  or  less."  Such  a  transfer  generally  is, 
and  always  should  be,  returned  to  him  by  the 
registrar  of  the  district  registry  office  as  being 
unregisterable.  Why?  Because,  in  99  cases  out 
of  100,  the  measurements  of  the  quarter  section 
will  not  be  found  to  be  on  the  ground  exactly  as 
they  are  shown  on  the  departmental  plan.  First 
let  us  suppose  that  the  North  and  South  bound- 
aries are  each  exactly  40.00  chains  in  length,  but 
that  the  meridian  outlines  are  each  40.50  in  length. 
Then  the  first  parcel  sold — namely  the  South 
half — was  40.00  by  40.25  chains  and  contained 
81  acres, — the  additional  acres  being  accounted 
for  in  the  original  description  by  the  use  of  the 
words  "more  or  less."  If  then  the  second  transfer, 
describing  the  remainder  as  the  North  20.00 
chains,  be  accepted  by  the  registrar,  there  is  left 
a  strip  of  25  links  by  40.00  chains,  containing  1 
acre  of  land,  still  left  in  the  original  title.  But  the 
registrar  has  no  other  source  of  knowledge  in 
regard  to  the  actual  size  of  the  quarter  section 
than  that  supplied  by  the  departmental  plan. 
If,  therefore,  he  chooses  to  accept  the  second 
transfer  for  registration,  he  can  only  do  so  on  the 
assumption  that  the  measurements  shown  on 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND  51 

such  plan  are  absolutely  correct,  in  which  case  the 
two  transfers,  taken  together,  include  all  the  land 
described  in  the  original  title,  and  the  said  title 
is  cancelled  in  full  accordingly.  But  we  have 
seen  that  there  is  still  one  acre  of  land  which  is 
not  included  hi  either  of  the  transfers  and  should 
still  appear  in  the  name,  and  on  the  title,  of  the 
original  owner.  The  result  is  that  the  title  to  the 
said  1  acre  becomes  latent  for  the  time  being  and 
is  very  often  lost  altogether  to  the  original  owner, 
because  the  owners  of  the  "South  half"  and  "the 
North  20.00  chains"  respectively  may,  in  per- 
fectly good  faith,  occupy  their  respective  proper- 
ties on  either  side  of  a  common  fence  and  thus, 
in  time,  acquire  a  title  through  undisturbed 
possession. 

Secondly,  let  us  suppose  that  the  North  and 
South  boundaries  are  still  40.00  chains  in  length, 
but  that  the  meridian  boundaries  are  each  39.50 
chains  in  length, — or  50  links  short.  Then  the 
first  parcel  sold  was  40.00  by  19.75  chains  and 
contained  79  acres.  The  second  transfer,  describ- 
ing the  remainder  as  the  North  20.00  chains,  in- 
cludes the  North  25  links  of  the  first  described 
parcel,  or  1  acre  of  land  for  which  the  transferrer 
has  no  title  and,  in  respect  to  which  the  title 
subsequently  issued  to  the  transferee  is  spurious; 

As  a  further  example  let  us  take  the  case  of  a  Example, 
city  lot  50  by  100  feet  of  which  the  boundaries 


52  DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 

are  due  North  and  South  or  East  and  West,  and 
of  which  a  part  has  been  already  conveyed  by 
description  as  "the  West  15  feet  of  said  lot." 
Since  the  actual  size  of  the  above  lot  is  determined 
by  the  position  of  its  corner  posts,  and  it  may  be 
either  49  or  51  feet  wide  on  the  ground  in  fact, 
although  the  plan  of  subdivision  shows  it  to  be 
exactly  50  feet,  it  would  be  incorrect  to  describe 
the  remainder  as  "the  East  35  feet  of  said  lot" 
for  the  same  reasons  given  hi  the  preceding  ex- 
ample. There  are  two  ways  of  describing  the 
remainder  correctly: — 

(a).  To  describe  it  as  the  whole  of  said  lot 
saving  and  excepting  thereout  and  therefrom  the 
West  15  feet  thereof. 

(6).  To  describe  it  by  metes  and  bounds  in  such 
a  way  as  to  exclude  the  West  15  feet;  for  in- 
stance— 

"Commencing  at  a  point  on  the  South  bound- 
ary of  said  lot  distant  15  feet  Easterly  from  the 
South  West  corner  thereof;  Thence  North  and 
parallel  to  the  West  boundary  of  said  lot  100 
feet  more  or  less  to  the  North  boundary  thereof; 
Thence  East  35  feet  more  or  less  to  the  North 
East  corner  of  said  lot;  Thence  South  along  the 
East  boundary  of  said  lot  100  feet  more  or  less 
to  the  South  East  corner  thereof;  Thence  West 
35  feet  more  or  less  to  the  point  of  commence- 
ment," or, 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND  53 

"Commencing  at  the  North  East  corner  of 
said  lot;  Thence  West  along  the  North  boundary 
of  said  lot  35  feet  more  or  less  to  a  point  distant 
15  feet  East  of  the  North  West  corner  thereof; 
Thence  South  and  parallel  to  the  West  boundary 
of  said  lot  100  feet  more  or  less  to  the  South  bound- 
ary thereof;  Thence  East,  etc.,  etc." 


Description  by  Exception  of  Previously  Con- 
veyed Parcels. 

Definition  of      43.  A  description  by  exception  is  one  of  an 
a  description  origmai  parcei  of  ianc}   out  of  which  a  part,  or 

by  exception.  . 

parts,  have  been  conveyed  by  description,  ex- 
pressed in  terms  of  the  exceptions  instead  of  in 
terms  of  the  remainder. 

Description         44.  From  the  above  definition  it  follows  that  a 

b3n  eatiePe10n  description  by  exception  is  a  negative  description 

description,     as  opposed  to  a  positive  or  direct  description  of 

the  land  to  be  conveyed,  and  on  this  account  is 

not  so  good  a  form  of  description  as  a  description 

by  remainder.     At  the  same  time  the  use  of 

descriptions  by  exception  is  unavoidable  in  some 

cases  and  allowable  in  many  others. 

How  de-  45.  The  creation  of  descriptions  by  exception 

ecnptions  by  occurs  through  the  conveyance  of  small  parcels 

exception 

occur.  which  may  make  the  remainder  of  the  original 

parcel  difficult  to  describe  directly,  or,  at  least, 
makes  it  easier  to  describe  by  exception.  For 
instance,  suppose  the  case  of  a  quarter  section  of 
land  from  which  a  parcel  has  been  conveyed  by 
description  that  lies  entirely  within  the  boundaries 
of  such  quarter  section,  thQ  parcel  being  con- 
nected with  one  of  said  boundaries  by  description 
54 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND  55 

of  a  survey  tie.  This  is  a  case  in  which  it  is  im- 
possible to  describe  the  remainder  otherwise  than 
in  terms  of  the  excepted  parcel. 

46.  It  will  often  be  found  that  a  parcel  of  land 
has  been  conveyed  out  of  an  original  title  by  a 
description  which  is  so  loosely  worded  and  faulty 
as  to  be  ambiguous.    In  all  such  cases  it  is  most 
desirable  that  the  remainder  should  be  described 
by  exception,  since  any  ambiguity  hi  the  descrip- 
tion of  the  part  conveyed  must  necessarily  be 
communicated  to  the  remainder  thus  created. 

It  is  true  that  to  describe  the  remainder  by  Faults  in  ti- 
exception  perpetuates  any  ambiguity  which  may  ^^^  ** 
exist,  but  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  duty  by  precise 
of  the  conveyancer  is  to  describe  that  which  ac-  description  of 

.  -IT       remainder. 

tually  remains,  and  if  such  remainder  includes 
any  ambiguity  of  title  such  ambiguity  must  be 
accounted  for  in  the  description. 

In  some  cases  a  conveyancer  will  deliberately 
attempt,  by  precise  description  of  the  remainder, 
to  rectify  the  ambiguity  of  title  caused  by  a 
faulty  description  contained  in  a  prior  conveyance. 
Such  an  attempt  is  illogical  and  futile,  because, 
if  the  ambiguity  is  of  real  effect  it  cannot  be 
affected  by  the  registration  of  an  instrument 
subsequent  to  that  of  the  one  which  caused  it. 

47.  The  title  to  an  original  parcel  of  land,  out 
of  which  a  great  many  small  parcels  have  been 
conveyed  by  description  frequently  becomes  ob- 


56 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


Titles  by  ex- 
ception of 
previously 
conveyed 
parcels  often 
become  ob- 


Example. 


scure,  and  is  only  intelligible  after  many  hours  of 
careful  work  and  plotting  each  of  said  small  par- 
cels, as  they  are  described,  on  a  plan  of  the  whole. 

This  condition  becomes  greatly  aggravated 
when  the  practice  of  describing  exceptions  from  a 
title  by  reference  to  the  number  of  the  Certificate 
of  Title  issued  for  such  exceptions  is  permitted 
by  the  Real  Property  Act  of  the  province  in  which 
such  land  occurs. 

Take  as  an  example  the  following  description : — 
"The  whole  of  section  4  in  Township  14,  Range  12 
West  of  the  4th  Meridian  as  the  same  is  shown  on 
a  plan  of  survey  of  the  said  township  approved 
and  confirmed  by  the  Surveyor  General  of  Canada 
at  Ottawa  on  the  17th  day  of  January,  1907, 
which  plan  is  of  record  in  the  Department  of  the 
Interior  at  Ottawa  and  in  the  Land  Titles  Office 
for  the  South  Alberta  Land  Registration  District 
saving  and  excepting  thereout  and  therefrom: — 

"Firstly: — All  those  portions  of  said  section 
comprised  within  the  limits  of  a  plan  of  subdivi- 
sion registered  in  said  Land  Titles  Office  under 
number  2066  in  Day  Book  'M2'; 

" Secondly: — A  parcel  of  land  containing  One 
(1)  and  77-100  acres  be  the  same  more  or  less 
being  part  of  a  public  roadway  as  shown  on  a  plan 
of  survey  of  said  roadway  registered  in  said  Land 
Titles  Office  under  Road  Plan  number  279  and  as 
described  in  Certificate  of  Title  14  Y.6. 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND  57 

"Thirdly: — All  that  portion  containing  17  and 
36-100  acres  be  the  same  more  or  less  taken  for 
the  Right  of  Way  of  the  Canadian  Pacific  Railway 
as  shown  on  a  plan  of  said  railway  filed  hi  said 
Land  Titles  Office  under  Railway  Plan  Number 
738  and  as  described  in  Certificate  of  Title  117 
K.7. 

" Fourthly: — All  that  portion  of  said  section 
described  in  Certificate  of  Title  202  N.ll,"  and 
so  on  until,  hi  some  cases,  there  are  as  many  as 
twenty  exceptions  to  which  the  original  parcel 
referred  to  in  the  Certificate  of  Title  is  sub- 
ject. 

Such  a  description  as  the  one  contained  in  the 
above  Certificate  of  Title  is  merely  negative  in 
effect.  Instead  of  being  a  sufficient,  complete  and 
self  contained  description  of  the  land  included  in 
the  title,  it  depends  for  its  validity  on  evidence 
contained  in  a  number  of  instruments  outside  of 
itself.  It  defines  the  position  and  limits  of  the 
original  parcel  but,  regarded  as  an  individual 
document,  conveys  no  assurance  that  any  of  such 
parcel  is  left  after  all  the  various  exceptions  have 
been  satisfied. 

The  existence  of  every  title  of  this  kind  is  a 
source  of  danger  and  embarrassment  to  registrar 
and  owner  alike,  because  it  is  impossible  to  know 
just  what  it  contains  without  doing  a  great  deal 
of  careful  work  which,  however  carefully  done, 


58  DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 

involves  a  greater  risk  of  serious  error  than  or- 
dinarily good  conveyancing  should  do. 

How  to  The  only  possible  remedy  is  simple  but  expen- 

scure  titles      s*ve  an<^  consis^s  m  taking  the  following  three 
steps : — 

(a).  To  have  a  survey  made  of  the  entire 
original  parcel  and  each  of  the  parcels  conveyed 
thereout  by  description. 

(6).  To  register  a  plan  of  such  survey,  showing 
clearly  the  boundaries  of  each  and  every  excepted 
parcel  and  showing  the  portions  still  remaining 
in  the  title  as  numbered  or  lettered  blocks. 

(c).  To  make  application  to  the  registrar  to 
cancel  the  existing  title  by  exception  and  to  issue 
instead  thereof  a  new  title  for  such  numbered  or 
lettered  blocks,  thus  converting  a  negative  title 
by  exception  into  a  positive  title  by  direct  de- 
scription. 


Descriptions  of  Railway  Right  of  Way. 

48.  Descriptions  of  railway  right  of  way  should  Descriptions 
almost  invariably  be  drawn  so  as  to  depend  di-  °.f  ""^y 

right  of   way 

rectly  on  a  sufficient  plan  of  survey — either  at-  muat  depend 
tached  to  the  instrument  containing  the  descrip-  on  "tflffi- 
tion  or  of  previous  record.  That  is  to  say  that  no 
attempt  should  be  made  to  describe  the  land  by 
metes  and  bounds  other  than  by  reference  to  the 
centre  line  of  the  railway  as  shown  on  such  plan. 
The  reason  for  the  above  statement  may  be 
found  in  the  fact  that  the  majority  of  right  of 
way  descriptions  are  complicated,  as  denned  in 
section  13,  in  that  the  boundaries  described  con- 
sist of  a  succession  of  tangents  and  curves.  More- 
over these  tangents  and  curves  are  actually  sur- 
veyed and  measured  along  the  centre  line  of  the 
railway,  whereas  the  boundaries  themselves,  on 
which  the  corresponding  tangents  are  of  different 
lengths  and  the  corresponding  curves  have  differ- 
ent radii  and  lengths,  are  not  surveyed  at  all,  but 
calculated  hi  reference  to  the  survey  of  said  centre 
line.  It  follows  therefore  that  the  measurements 
given  in  a  description  by  metes  and  bounds  of  a 
right  of  way  are  calculated  instead  of  having  been 
measured  on  the  ground,  and  are  more  subject 
to  error  than  if  taken  from  actual  survey  data. 
59 


60  DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 

Another  objection  to  descriptions  by  metes  and 
bounds  of  railway  right  of  way  is  that  it  is  not 
possible  to  realize  the  position  of  the  land  de- 
scribed without  a  plan,  and,  if  the  description  be 
also  made  subject  to  a  sufficient  plan  of  survey 
there  is  no  object  in  describing  the  land  by  metes 
and  bounds  at  all,  for  the  plan  is  then  an  integral 
part  of  the  description.  In  fact  any  description 
of  land  in  which  the  facts  of  survey  on  which  it  is 
based  are  presented  in  a  dual  manner,  as  in  the 
case  of  a  description  by  metes  and  bounds  which 
is  also  made  subject  to  a  plan  of  survey,  contains 
in  itself  this  element  of  weakness — that  any 
discrepancy  between  the  measurements  shown  on 
the  plan  and  those  contained  in  the  written  de- 
scription must  often  remain  unaccountable.  We 
have  seen,  for  instance,  that  it  is  neither  necessary 
nor  desirable  in  describing  a  quarter  section  ac- 
cording to  the  departmental  plan  of  survey  of  the 
township  in  which  it  occurs  to  refer  to  the  measure- 
ments of  its  boundaries;  or,  in  describing  a  town 
lot  according  to  the  plan  of  survey  of  the  sub- 
division containing  it  to  refer  to  the  measure- 
ments of  such  lot. 

49.  Since  descriptions  of  right  of  way  must 
depend  directly  on  the  registered  plan  of  survey 
of  such  right  of  way,  it  is  essential  that  such  plan 
shall  be  a  "sufficient"  plan  of  survey,  as  defined 
in  section  5.  Given  such  a  plan  it  is  usual  to 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND  61 

describe  right  of  way  as  shown  in  the  following 
example: — "All  that  part  of  the  South  East  Example, 
quarter  of  Section  Twenty  (20)  in  Township  Forty- 
six  (46)  Range  Twenty-three  (23)  West  of  the 
Fourth  (4th)  Meridian  in  the  Province  of  Alberta 
as  the  same  is  shown  on  a  plan  of  survey  of  said 
township  approved  and  confirmed  by  the  Surveyor 
General  of  Canada  at  Ottawa  on  the  14th  day  of 
May,  1894,  which  plan  is  of  record  in  the  Depart- 
ment of  the  Interior  at  Ottawa  and  in  the  Land 
Titles  Office  for  the  North  Alberta  Land  Registra- 
tion District  at  Edmonton  in  said  Province  which 
is  taken  for  the  Right  of  Way  of  the  Canadian 
Pacific  Railway  and  lies  between  two  lines  drawn 
parallel  to  and  perpendicularly  distant  fifty  (50) 
feet  from  and  on  opposite  sides  of  the  centre  line 
of  said  railway  as  the  same  is  shown  on  a  plan  of 
survey  of  said  railway  crossing  said  land  and  lands 
adjoining  the  same  registered  in  said  Land  Titles 
Office  under  number  2037  in  Day  Book  'P'  and 
as  said  railway  is  now  constructed  on  the  ground, 
the  land  herein  described  containing  Six  (6)  and 
66-100  acres  more  or  less  and  as  shown  colored 
red  on  said  plan  of  railway." 

There  are  several  points  hi  the  above  descrip- 
tion which  are  worth  considering — 

(a).  Since  railway  right  of  way  constitutes  a 
special  form  of  land  titles,  and  the  land  conveyed 
is,  as  a  rule,  devoted  to  the  one  purpose,  it  may  be 


62  DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 

good  practical  conveyancing  to  describe  right  of 
way  as  being  "taken  for  the  Right  of  Way  of 
the  Canadian  Pacific  Railway"  with  a  view  to 
giving  it  general  distinctive  description.  In 
theory  however,  the  practice  is  incorrect.  There 
is  absolutely  no  difference  between  the  title  which 
a  railway  corporation  acquires  to  its  right  of  way 
and  any  other  title  to  land,  and  to  describe  it  in 
reference  to  its  present  or  future  use  is  as  if  a 
city  lot  were  described  as  "being  acquired  for  the 
purpose  of  erecting  a  livery  barn  thereon,"  which 
part  of  the  description  would  be  superfluous  at  any 
time  and  would  become  more  apparently  so  if  the 
land  were  used  for  some  entirely  different  purpose. 
(6).  The  words  "crossing  said  land  and  lands 
adjoining  the  same"  are  necessary  because,  since 
the  right  of  way  is  described  in  reference  to  the 
perpendicular  distance  of  its  boundaries  from  the 
centre  line,  the  projection  of  said  centre  line  be- 
yond the  actual  boundaries  of  the  parcel  of  land 
containing  the  right  of  way  being  described  must 
be  allowed  for.  For  instance,  suppose  a  point  of 
curve  of  the  centre  line  to  fall  exactly  on  a  bound- 
ary between  two  parcels  of  land;  there  will  then 
be  a  part  of  the  boundary  of  the  right  of  way  in 
each  of  said  parcels  which  will  be  neither  parallel 
to  nor  perpendicularly  distant  fifty  feet  from  the 
centre  line  as  it  is  shown  within  the  limits  of  said 
parcel. 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND  63 

(c).  The  words  "and  as  such  railway  is  now 
constructed  on  the  grounds,"  or  words  to  the  same 
effect,  are  inserted  by  a  good  many  corporation 
lawyers  in  the  forms  of  transfer  prepared  by  them 
for  the  use  of  railway  companies,  with  a  view  to 
safeguarding  the  company  from  the  effects  of 
trespass  committed  through  misdescription  of  its 
right  of  way.  Owing  to  the  insufficient  character 
of  many  railway  plans  on  which  descriptions  of 
right  of  way  have  been  based,  it  is  no  infrequent 
occurrence  for  subsequent  and  more  careful  sur- 
vey to  reveal  the  fact  that  the  land  occupied  and 
fenced  in  by  the  company  does  not  agree  with  that 
described  hi  its  title;*  i.  e.,  that  the  company  is 
trespassing,  and  it  is  this  trespass  which  the  use 
of  the  above  words  is  intended  to  purge. 

It  is  possible  that  the  use  of  the  above  words 
may  have  something  of  the  intended  effect  as 
against  the  owner  of  the  land  who  executed  the 
original  transfer — he  being  still  the  owner  of  the 
remainder — in  that  such  owner  might  conceiv- 
ably be  ordered  by  a  court  to  fulfil  the  evident 
intention  of  the  faulty  transfer  by  executing  a 
new  one  in  lieu  of  it,  but  it  is  impossible  to  believe 
that  the  insertion  of  said  words  in  a  transfer, 
wherein  the  land  also  purports  to  be  precisely 
described  in  reference  to  the  measurements  shown 
on  a  registered  plan,  can  have  any  effect  on  the 
*  See  section  18. 


64  DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 

title  that  issues  from  said  transfer.  If  the  latter 
were  the  case,  it  would  mean  one  of  two  things: 
either  that  the  land  conveyed  was  that  occupied 
by  the  company  at  the  date  of  the  transfer, 
whether  such  occupation  were  determined  by  the 
theoretical  width  on  either  side  of  the  centre  of 
the  actual  track  or  in  regard  to  the  position  of  the 
fences — matters,  in  either  case,  which  it  would 
be  impossible  to  establish  the  truth  in  regard  to 
after  a  few  years — or  else  it  might  be  construed 
to  mean  that  the  land  conveyed  was  that  occupied 
by  the  company  at  any  present  time,  or  in  other 
words  that  every  time  a  portion  of  the  track  were 
re-constructed,  a  curve  flattened  or  new  fences 
erected  the  land  conveyed  by  the  title  would  vary 
accordingly,  and  would  therefore  be  indeter- 
minate. 

In  the  absence  of  any  judicial  decisions  on  the 
point,  either  of  the  above  alternatives  appears  to 
be  preposterous. 

It  may  therefore  be  accepted  as  an  unestab- 
lished  rule  that  the  words  "and  as  such  railway 
is  now  constructed  on  the  ground"  should  not  be 
inserted  in  descriptions  of  right  of  way,  and  that, 
if  they  are  so  inserted  in  transfers,  registrars 
should  at  least  see  that  they  are  not  included  in 
the  description  of  right  of  way  contained  in  cer- 
tificates of  title  issuing  from  said  transfers. 

(d).  One  difficulty  in  regard  to  the  above  form 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND  65 

of  description  is  that  it  is  practically  impossible 
to  include  in  such  a  description  all  the  extra  land 
which  a  railway  company  requires  beyond  its 
mere  right  of  way  for  station  grounds,  wyes, 
sidings,  extra  wide  cuts  or  fills,  borrow  pits,  water 
tanks,  snow  fences  or  sheds  or  other  purposes  con- 
nected with  the  railway.  The  consequence  is  that 
separate  descriptions  have  to  be  made  for  all  these 
as  occasion  requires.  With  the  exception  of  sta- 
tion grounds,  all  the  extra  land  so  required  is 
generally  of  so  small  a  monetary  value  that  the 
company  can  hardly  be  expected  to  have  a  sepa- 
rate survey  made  of  each — which  survey  would 
probably  cost  three  or  four  tunes  as  much  as  the 
company  is  required  to  pay  for  the  land  itself — 
and  the  result  is  that  these  parcels  are  also  de- 
scribed in  reference  to  the  position  of  the  centre 
line.  Such  descriptions  are  often  very  involved 
but  must  be  accepted  as  one  of  the  weaknesses 
of  the  above  form  of  description. 

50.  While  the  method  of  describing  right  of  Method  of 
way  referred  to  in  the  preceding  section  is  almost  ^"of^a 
universally  employed  at  the  present  tune,  there  as  lettered 
is  another  method  sometimes  used  which  is  dis-  blocks  shown 

on  plan. 

tinctly  better  but  has  the  one  disadvantage  that 
it  requires  a  more  complete  survey  of  the  land 
described.  This  method  consists  in  showing  the 
land  required  for  all  railway  purposes  as  lettered 
blocks  on  the  registered  plan  of  survey  of  the  right 


66  DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 

of  way,  and  describing  them  in  the  same  way  that 
city  lots  are  described;  i.  e.,  without  direct  refer- 
ence to  any  of  the  measurements  shown  on  the 
plan  but  simply  by  reference  to  the  lettered 
block  considered  as  a  separate  parcel  of  land, 
and  the  registration  marks  of  the  plan.  For 
instance: — 

Example.  "All  that  part  of  the  South  East  quarter  of 

section  Twenty  (20)  in  Township  Forty-six  (46) 
Range  Twenty-three  (23)  West  of  the  Fourth 
(4th)  Meridian  in  the  Province  of  Alberta  as  the 
same  is  shown  on  a  plan  of  survey  of  said  township 
approved  and  confirmed  by  the  Surveyor  General 
of  Canada  at  Ottawa  on  the  14th  day  of  May, 
1894,  which  plan  is  of  record  hi  the  Department 
of  the  Interior  at  Ottawa  and  in  the  Land  Titles 
Office  for  the  North  Alberta  Land  Registration 
District  at  Edmonton  in  said  Province  Being 
C.  P.  R.  Block  No.  1  containing  Six  and  sixty-six 
hundredths  (6  66-100)  acres  be  the  same  more  or 
less  and  as  said  Block  is  shown  colored  red  on  a 
plan  of  survey  of  the  Canadian  Pacific  Railway 
right  of  way  registered  hi  said  Land  Titles  Office 
under  number  2037  in  Day  Book  '  P. ' 

One  advantage  in  the  above  form  is  that  it 
could  be  made  to  include  all  extra  right  of  way 
shown  on  the  original  plan,  either  as  part  of 
"C.  P.  R.  Block  No.  1"  or  as  "C.  P.  R.  Blocks 
Nos.  2,  3,  4,  etc." 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND  67 

Another  advantage  is  that  it  is  somewhat 
shorter  and  more  simple  although  it  depends  no 
more  directly  on  the  plan  than  the  form  in  the 
preceding  section. 


Exception  of  Minerals  in  Descriptions  of  Land. 

Land  includes      51.  Since  the  theory  of  title  to  land  is  that  such 

derT'n *  the "  ^e  inc^uc^es  no^  on^y  the  surface  but  all  that 
same.  underlies  it,  it  follows  that  all  mineral  deposits, 

underlying  land  would  be  included  in  a  perfect 
allodial  title  to  such  land.  As  a  matter  of  fact 
there  are  comparatively  few  such  titles  in  exist- 
ence. There  are  rare  cases  where  grants  for  land 
have  been  issued  by  the  Crown  without  any  reser- 
vation whatever,  as,  for  instance,  some  of  the 
earlier  grants  issued  by  the  Government  of  the 
Crown  Colony  of  British  Columbia,  which  con- 
veyed all  minerals — precious  or  otherwise.  The 
Dominion  Lands  Act  however,  always  excluded 
gold  and  silver  from  the  rights  conveyed  by  Crown 
Grant  to  land,  and  has  also  excluded  coal  and 
petroleum  for  some  years  past. 

Land  titles         Thus  we  see  that  there  are  certain  reservations 
reservations    an(*  exceptions  to  most  land  titles  created  by  the 
mentioned  in  conditions  of  the  original  grant  from  the  Crown, 
rown  grants.  jjowever?  there  are  very  many  existing  titles  which 
include  the  base  minerals,  and  it  is  frequently 
required  to  except  coal  for  instance  from  the  opera- 
tion of  a  conveyance  transferring  the  land  which 
overlays  it.    This  is  effected  by  adding  to  the  end 
68 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND  69 

of  the  description  contained  in  such  conveyance 
the  words  "  Saving  and  excepting  thereout  and 
therefrom  all  coal  which  may  be  in  or  under  said 
land  and  the  right  to  mine  the  same"  or  other 
words  to  that  effect. 

It  will  frequently  happen  that  a  person  trans-  Restrictive 
ferring  land  but  retaining  the  coal  rights  will  ™™J^J° 
want  to  have  included  hi  the  description  articles  to  be  avoided, 
of  agreement  as  to  his  right  of  entry  upon  the  land 
for  the  purpose  of  mining  said  coal.    Such  articles 
would  constitute  a  restrictive  covenant  in  the 
title  and,  therefore,  should  not  be  inserted  in  the 
description  of  the  land  to  be  transferred,  but 
should  be  embodied  hi  a  separate  form  of  agree- 
ment between  the  parties  which  could  be  regis- 
tered against  the  title. 

NOTE. — If  the  fee  simple  of  an  entire  parcel  of 
land  is  transferred  "saving  and  excepting  thereout 
and  therefrom  all  coal  which  may  be  in  or  under 
said  land,  etc."  the  apparent  effect  is  to  create  a 
fee  simple  for  the  remainder — in  this  case  the 
coal.  This  is  of  course  impossible,  but  a  separate 
title  to  the  coal  is  certainly  created  in  such  a  case. 
I  am  writing  of  the  practice  of  conveyance  by 
description  as  I  know  it  to  be — and  the  case 
stated  is  quite  common  practice — but  my  own 
opinion  would  be  that  it  is  improper  to  create  a 
title  for  coal  apart  from  the  land  which  overlays 
it,  and  that  all  transactions  in  regard  to  coal  should 
be  in  the  form  of  lease  and  should  follow  the  title 
to  the  land  in  the  same  way  that  an  unredeemed 


70  DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 

mortgage  does.  For  instance  it  is  my  opinion  that 
a  vendor  desiring  to  retain  coal  rights  should 
transfer  the  coal  with  the  land  and  receive  back 
from  the  vendee  a  reciprocal  lease  of  the  coal 
rights  to  be  registered  against  said  vendee's  title 
when  issued. 


Interpretation  of  Faulty  Descriptions  of  Land. 

52.  A  description  of  land  should  be  drawn  in 
such  a  way  that  it  is  capable  of  only  one  possible 
interpretation. 

Unfortunately  there  are  many  descriptions  of  Existence  of 
land  which  contain  inherent  errors  in  construe-  **"?£  de~ 

scnptions 

tion  and  in  the  mathematical  data  given  in  regard  which  are 
to  the  various  boundaries  of  the  land  described,  nevertneless 
which  nevertheless  form  the  base  of  title  to  such 
land.    It  therefore  becomes  necessary  to  consider 
the  question  of  how  to  interpret  a  faulty  descrip- 
tion in  laying  out,  or  otherwise  dealing  with,  the 
land  described  or  lands  adjacent  thereto.    If  the 
land  conveyed  by  a  faulty  description  is  of  suffi-  Interpreta- 
cient  value,  and  the  parties  affected  cannot  agree  *lon  ?f  *aulty 

descriptions 

upon  an  interpretation  of  such  description  that  is  by  a  judge, 
mutually  satisfactory,  it  is  often  necessary  to  ap- 
ply to  the  courts  for  an  interpretation  thereof. 
A  Judge  has  power  to  take  evidence  into  con- 
sideration and  issue  an  order  accordingly.  In 
the  case  of  registrars,  conveyancers,  surveyors 
and  others  who  have  occasion  to  deal  with  faulty 
descriptions,  and  who  do  not  have  the  power  of 
discretion  vested  in  a  Judge,  it  may  be  laid  down 
as  a  general  rule  that  "When  dealing  with  a 
71 


72  DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 

Descriptions    faulty  description  it  is  only  permissible  to  take 
to  be  followed  'mfo  consideration  the  mere  technical  facts  pre- 

m  order  of  .  ... 

construction,  sented  in  the  description  as  written  in  the  order 
in  which  they  are  written." 

Example.  53.  For  instance,  suppose  a  part  of  a  quarter 

section  to  be  described  as  follows: — " Commenc- 
ing at  the  North  East  corner  of  said  quarter  sec- 
tion; Thence  South  along  the  East  boundary  of 
said  quarter  section  a  distance  of  2,000  feet  to  a 
point  (A)  Thence  North  60°  00'  West  a  distance 
of  3,049  feet  more  or  less  to  a  point  on  the  West 
boundary  of  said  quarter  section;  (B)  Thence 
North  along  said  West  boundary  a  distance  of 
376  feet  more  or  less  to  the  North  West  corner  of 
said  quarter  section;  (C)  Thence  East  along  the 
North  boundary  of  said  quarter  section  a  distance 
of  2,640  feet  more  or  less  to  the  point  of  commence- 
ment." 

On  plotting  the  above  description  it  will  be 
found  that  when  the  position  of  the  point  (B)  has 
been  determined  in  accordance  with  the  descrip- 
tion of  the  course  A-B,  the  distance  from  (B)  to 
(C)  is  in  reality  476  feet  instead  of  376  feet  as 
described.  The  description  is  therefore  faulty  in 
that  it  will  not  close  because  the  correlation  of 
the  various  courses  as  described  is  mathematically 
impossible.  Either  the  bearing  of  A-B  is  correct 
and  the  distance  B-C  as  given  in  the  description 
is  wrong,  or  the  distance  B-C  as  given  in  the 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND  73 

description  is  correct  and  the  bearing  of  A-B 
must  be  disregarded.  Neglecting  the  possibility 
that  both  distance  and  bearing  are  incorrect,  and 
following  the  general  rule  above  stated,  there  can 
be  no  doubt  that  the  bearing  given  for  A-B  must 
be  accepted  as  correct,  since  the  first  two  courses 
described  are  correct  in  themselves  and  are  not 
subject  to  that  which  follows. 

Of  course  there  is  a  certain  amount  of  internal  Departure 
evidence  contained  in  such  a  description  which 

rule    some- 
may  be  strong  enough  to  justify  a  departure  from  times   justi- 

the  general  rule:  For  instance,  supposing  the  dis-  fief  by .mter~ 

7        r  °  nal    evidence 

tance  given  for  A-B  to  have  been  3,099.4  feet  of  description, 
more  or  less,  which  equals  cosecant  58°  25'   X  Example. 
2,640  and  which  would  agree  with  the  distance  of 
376  feet  given  for  B-C,  and  that  the  area  of  the 
parcel  is  given  as  being  72  acres  which  would 
also  agree  with  said  distance,  the  weight  of  evi- 
dence would  tend  to  disprove  the  correctness  of 
the  bearing  given  for  A-B  and  to  show  that  the 
distance  of  376  feet  given  for  B-C  was  correct. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  in  any  case  where  the  dis- 
crepancy is  so  marked  as  in  the  above  example, 
it  would  be  very  unsafe  to  assume  either  inter- 
pretation of  the  description;  the  only  proper 
course  would  be  to  remedy  the  description  itself 
either  by  re-conveyance  on  the  part  of  the  regis- 
tered owners  of  the  land,  or  by  obtaining  an  order 
of  the  court  to  that  effect. 


74  DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 

It  may  be  noted  that  if  the  course  A-B  had 
been  described  so  as  to  read  "Thence  North 
60°  00'  West  a  distance  of  3,049  feet  more  or 
less  to  a  point  on  the  West  boundary  of  said 
quarter  section  distant  376  feet  from  the  North 
West  corner  thereof,"  there  would  be  no  dis- 
crepancy, because  the  bearing,  though  incorrect, 
would  be  subject  to  the  position  of  two  clearly 
denned  points  and  would  be  manifestly  wrong. 


Preamble  of  a  Description  of  Land. 

54.  For  use  in  all  cases  where  it  may  seem  ad- 
visable, the  following  is  a  good  form  of  preamble 
which  is  sometimes  used  hi  descriptions  of  land: 
"All  and  singular  that  certain  parcel  or  tract  of  Formofpre- 

,    .  i  i_   •  .1       amble  some- 

land  and  premises  situate  lying  and  being  in  the  timeg  uged 

Province  of  Alberta  in  the  Dominion  of  Canada 
comprising  part  of  the  South  East  quarter  of 
Section  Twenty  (20)  hi  Township  Fourteen  (14) 
Range  Twelve  (12)  West  of  the  Fourth  (4th) 
Meridian  as  the  same  is  shown  on  a  plan  of  survey 
of  said  township  approved  and  confirmed  by  the 
Surveyor  General  of  Canada  at  Ottawa  on  the 
14th  day  of  May,  1894,  and  which  may  be  more 
particularly  described  as  follows,  that  is  to  say: — " 

In  ordinary  practice  however,  the  use  of  such  Above  form 
a  form  is  cumbersome  and  unnecessary.  For 
instance  many  Real  Property  Acts  define  the  cases, 
meaning  of  the  word  "land"  in  the  interpretation 
clauses  of  the  Act  to  mean  "lands,  messuages, 
tenement,  and  hereditaments,  corporeal  and  in- 
corporeal, of  every  nature  and  description,  and 
every  estate  or  interest  therein,  etc.,  etc."  It 
follows,  therefore,  that  when  conveying  land  held 
under  the  provisions  of  such  an  act  it  is  quite 
75 


76  DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 

unnecessary  to  include   the  words  "and  prem- 
ises." 

General  form      As  a  general  rule  it  is  quite  sufficient  to  com- 
De>    mence  a  description   "All  that  portion  of  the 
South  East  quarter,  etc." 

Examples  of  Descriptions  of  Land  with  Explana- 
tory Notes. 

55.  The  following  example  is  a  description  of  a 
city  lot  together  with  an  easement  over  the  East 
14  inches  of  the  lot  immediately  adjoining  the 
same  on  the  West  side  thereof,  which  easement  is 
created  by  the  previous  registration  of  a  party 
wall  agreement  and  is  appurtenant  to  the  lot 
described.  The  boundaries  of  both  lots  are  shown 
to  be  due  North  and  South  or  East  and  West 
on  the  registered  plan  of  subdivision. 

"The  whole  of  Lot  numbered  Thirteen  (13) 
in  Block  numbered  Seventy-one  (71)  in  the  City 
of  Calgary  in  the  Province  of  Alberta  in  the 
Dominion  of  Canada  as  the  same  is  shown  on  a 
plan  of  subdivision  of  a  part  of  said  City  regis- 
tered in  the  Land  Titles  Office  for  the  South 
Alberta  Land  Registration  District  in  said  City 
under  number  2133  in  Day  Book  'S'  together 
with  an  easement  over  the  East  Fourteen  (14) 
inches  of  lot  numbered  Twelve  (12)  in  said  Block 
for  the  purposes  specifically  mentioned  hi  an 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND  77 

instrument  registered  in  said  Land  Titles  Office 
under  number  249  in  Day  Book  'RV 


Notes. 

(a).  The  effect  of  the  registration  of  instrument 
249  R  was  to  register  a  charge  or  encumbrance 
against  the  Certificate  of  Title  for  Lot  12  and  a 
corresponding  entry  on  the  Certificate  of  Title 
for  Lot  13  making  the  easement  appurtenant 
thereto. 

(6).  In  some  cases  conveyancers  define  the  pur- 
poses and  conditions  of  the  easement  in  the  body 
of  the  description,  thus  making  the  description 
more  complete  and  self  contained.  I  prefer  the 
method  of  reference  to  the  registered  instrument 
creating  the  easement  as  eliminating  all  possibility 
of  discrepancy  between  the  terms  of  the  ease- 
ment as  expressed  in  the  description  and  as 
actually  provided  in  the  registered  instrument. 
Also  the  terms  and  conditions  mentioned  in  the 
registered  instrument  are  frequently  irrelevant 
to  a  description  of  land,  and  their  inclusion  in  a 
description  intended  to  be  inserted  hi  a  Certificate 
of  Title  would  tend  to  obscure  the  real  facts  of 
such  title 

56.  The  following  example  illustrates  the  parti- 
tion by  description  of  two  city  lots,  and  is  based 
on  the  facts  of  an  actual  case: — 


78 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 


Lots  1  and  2  as  shown  in  the  figure  were  origi- 
nally owned  by  A.  A  first  sold  to  B  the  part  de- 
scribed as  follows: — 

"All  those  portions  of  Lots  numbered  One  (1) 
and  Two  (2)  in  Block  numbered  Five  (5)  in  the 
City  of  Edmonton  in  the  Province  of  Alberta  in 
the  Dominion  of  Canada  as  the  same  are  shown 
on  a  plan  of  subdivision  of  part  of  said  city  regis- 
tered in  the  Land  Titles  Office  for  the  North 
Alberta  Land  Registration  District  in  said  City 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND  79 

under  number  14  in  Day  Book  'X'  which  may  be 
more  particularly  described  as  follows: — 

"Commencing  at  the  North  West  corner  of  said 
Lot  1 :  Thence  South  along  the  West  boundary  of 
said  lot  Seventy  (70)  feet  to  a  point;  Thence 
Easterly  and  parallel  to  the  Northerly  boundaries 
of  said  lots  1  and  2  to  a  point  on  the  Easterly 
boundary  of  said  lot  2;  Thence  Northerly  along 
said  Easterly  boundary  to  the  North  East  corner 
of  said  lot  2;  Thence  Westerly  along  the  Northerly 
boundary  of  said  lots  2  and  1  ninety-five  (95) 
feet  more  or  less  to  the  point  of  commence- 
ment." 

A  then  sold  to  C  "All  these  portions  of  Lots 
numbered  One  (1)  and  Two  (2)  etc.,  .  .  . 
which  may  be  described  as  the  most  Southerly 
Eighty  (80)  feet  throughout  of  said  lots." 

B  erected  a  six  story  modern  block  completely 
covering  the  most  Northerly  70  feet  of  said  lots 
measured  perpendicularly  from  the  Northerly 
boundary  thereof. 

A  discovered  that  the  part  sold  by  him  to  B 
as  described  above,  only  contained  69.6  feet  meas- 
ured perpendicularly  from  the  Northerly  bound- 
ary of  said  lots,  and  demanded  payment  for  the 
remaining  four-tenths  of  a  foot. 

On  a  careful  resurvey  of  the  lots  being  made  it 
was  discovered  that  they  were  two-tenths  of  a 
foot  longer,  measured  along  the  First  Street 


80  DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 

frontage,  than  the  measurement  shown  on  the 
registered  plan,  and  B  was  obliged,  on  advice  of 
his  counsel,  to  pay  to  A  a  sum  of  $1,000,  for  the 
six-tenths  of  a  foot  still  remaining  hi  A's  title. 

Notes. 

(a).  The  description  of  the  part  sold  by  A  to 
B  was  a  perfectly  good  description  in  itself,  but 
was  misunderstood  by  B  and  his  agents.  On 
the  other  hand  it  did  not  carry  out  the  evident 
intention  of  the  parties  to  divide  the  land  into 
two  parts  having  perpendicular  depths  of  70  and 
80  feet  respectively. 

(6).  It  is  important  to  note  that  all  the  parties 
involved  were  bound  by  the  actual  terms  of  the 
description  contained  in  the  transfer  from  A  to 
B,  in  spite  of  A's  evident  intention  to  dispose  of 
the  whole  of  his  property  by  the  two  transfers  to 
B  and  C  respectively,  and  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
the  registrar  had  erroneously  cancelled  his  title 
in  full  on  the  registration  of  the  second  transfer 
to  C  some  years  previously,  and  that  A's  title  had 
therefore  been  latent  for  such  time. 

(c).  The  description  of  the  land  sold  by  A  to  C 
was  loosely  and  incorrectly  drawn,  but  its  intent 
was  admitted  by  both  A  and  C  to  mean  "the 
most  Southerly  80  feet  of  the  lots  measured  per- 
pendicularly from  the  Southerly  boundary 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND  81 

thereof.  For  a  proper  method  of  description  of 
this  part  see  Sections  41  and  42  (a)  and  (6). 

57.  In  connection  with  the  description  of  lots 
as  shown  on  plans  of  subdivision  of  lands  lying 
outside  of,  but  comparatively  near  to,  the  limits 
of  an  incorporated  city  or  town,  it  is  very  common 
practice  to  describe  the  whole  subdivision  by  some 
high  sounding  name  as  a  "suburb  of  "  or  "an  addi- 
tion to"  such  city  or  town.  For  instance: — "Lot 
numbered  One  (1)  in  Block  numbered  Forty-six 
(46)  in  Maryborough  Heights  being  an  addition 
to  the  townsite  of  Orwell  as  the  same  is  shown, 
etc." 

It  is  almost  unnecessary  to  say  that  this  prac- 
tice emanates  from  real  estate  offices  rather  than 
from  the  law  courts. 

A  subdivision  within  the  limits  of  a  city  or 
town  is  a  part  of  said  city  or  town. 

A  subdivision  outside  such  limits  is  not  a  part 
of  such  city  or  town.  It  is  merely  a  subdivision 
of  a  parcel  of  land  which  may  never  be  incor- 
porated within  the  limits  of  an  adjacent  town  and 
can  only  be  properly  identified  by  the  legal  de- 
scription of  the  land  itself.  Moreover,  it  is  not 
practically  possible  to  establish  a  limit  of  distance 
beyond  city  limits  within  which  a  subdivision 
may  be  termed  "an  addition"  or  "a  suburb",  and 
when  such  a  subdivision  happens  to  be  five  miles 
beyond  city  limits,  either  of  the  above  terms  is 


82  DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 

obviously  misleading.  Therefore  the  description 
of  all  lots  situated  in  subdivisions  outside  the 
limits  of  an  incorporated  city  or  town  should  be 
described  as  follows: — 

"Lot  numbered  One  (1)  in  Block  numbered 
Thirteen  (13)  as  the  same  is  shown  on  a  plan  of 
subdivision  of  part  of  the  South  East  quarter  of 
Section  Fourteen  (14)  in  Township  Forty-one  (41) 
Range  Thirteen  (13)  West  of  the  Fourth  (4th) 
Meridian  in  the  Province  of  Alberta  in  the  do- 
minion of  Canada  which  plan  is  registered  in  the 
Land  Titles  Office  for  the  North  Alberta  Land 
Registration  District  at  Edmonton  in  said  Prov- 
ince under  number  7144  in  Day  Book  '  K. " 

58.  The  following  example  is  a  description  of 
part  of  a  quarter  section  bounded  on  the  West  and 
South  by  the  boundaries  of  the  quarter  section, 
on  the  North  by  the  High  Water  Mark  of  the 
North  Saskatchewan  River  and  on  the  East  by 
the  Westerly  boundary  of  a  registered  townsite, 
which  however  does  not  extend  to  said  High 
Water  Mark: — 

"All  that  part  of  the  North  West  quarter  of 
Section  Twenty-three  (23)  in  Township  Forty- 
two  (42)  Range  Fourteen  (14)  West  of  the  Fourth 
(4th)  Meridian  in  the  Province  of  Alberta  in  the 
Dominion  of  Canada  as  the  same  is  shown  on  a 
plan  of  survey  of  said  township  approved  and  con- 
firmed by  the  Surveyor  General  of  Canada  at 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND  83 

Ottawa  on  the  18th  day  of  July,  1907,  which  plan 
is  of  record  in  the  Department  of  the  Interior 
at  Ottawa  and  in  the  Land  Titles  Office  for  the 
North  Alberta  Land  Registration  District  at 
Edmonton  in  said  Province  and  which  may  be 
more  particularly  described  as  follows: — Com- 
mencing at  the  South  West  corner  of  said  quarter 
section;  Thence  Easterly  along  the  Southerly 
boundary  of  said  quarter  section  Eighteen  hun- 
dred and  sixty-four  (1864)  feet  more  or  less  to  the 
intersection  of  said  boundary  with  the  Westerly 
boundary  of  Elm  Street  as  the  same  is  shown  on 
a  plan  of  subdivision  registered  in  said  Land 
Titles  Office  under  number  4173  hi  Day  Book 
'AM';  Thence  North  along  said  West  boundary 
of  Elm  Street,  and  said  West  boundary  produced 
Northerly,  Fourteen  hundred  and  twenty  (1420) 
feet  more  or  less  to  the  High  Water  Mark  of  the 
North  Saskatchewan  River;  Thence  Westerly  and 
following  said  High  Water  Mark  in  an  upstream 
direction  to  its  intersection  with  the  West  bound- 
ary of  said  quarter  section;  Thence  South  along 
said  West  boundary  One  thousand  and  ninety- 
four  (1094)  feet  more  or  less  to  the  South  West 
corner  of  said  quarter  section  and  point  of  com- 
mencement the  part  herein  described  containing 
approximately  Fifty-three  (53)  acres  be  the  same 
more  or  less." 


84  DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 

Notes. 

(a).  All  the  distances  in  this  description  are 
"more  or  less"  in  accordance  with  the  rule  laid 
down  in  section  27. 

(6).  The  acreage  given  is  qualified  by  the  use 
of  the  word  "approximately"  in  accordance  with 
the  rule  laid  down  in  section  22. 

59.  The  following  example  is  a  description  of 
part  of  a  quarter  section  bounded  on  the  South 
by  the  right  of  way  of  the  Grand  Trunk  Pacific 
Railway: — 

"All  that  part  of  the  North  East  quarter  of 
Section  Twenty-one  (21)  in  Township  Forty- 
nine  (49)  Range  Seventeen  (17)  West  of  the  Fourth 
(4th)  Meridian  in  the  Province  of  Alberta  in  the 
Dominion  of  Canada  as  the  same  is  shown  on  a 
plan  of  survey  of  said  township  approved  and 
confirmed  by  the  Surveyor  General  of  Canada 
at  Ottawa  on  the  llth  day  of  October,  1903,  which 
plan  is  of  record  in  the  Department  of  the  In- 
terior at  Ottawa  and  in  the  Land  Titles  Office  for 
the  North  Alberta  Land  Registration  District  at 
Edmonton  in  said  Province  which  lies  to  the 
North  of  the  Northerly  limit  of  the  right  of  way 
of  the  Grand  Trunk  Pacific  Railway  as  the  same 
is  shown  on  a  plan  of  survey  of  said  right  of  way 
registered  in  said  Land  Titles  Office  under  num- 
ber 14444  in  Day  Book  'L  V 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND  85 

Notes. 

(a).  No  acreage  is  mentioned  in  the  description 
because  the  description  is  not  made  subject  to 
an  explanatory  plan  of  survey,  nor  is  the  acreage 
shown  on  the  railway  plan  referred  to,  and,  with- 
out the  assurance  afforded  by  a  surveyors'  certif- 
icate, a  registrar  would  be  justified  in  refusing  to 
accept  the  conveyance  if  it  showed  a  specified 
acreage,  since  he  could  have  no  means  of  knowing 
whether  it  was  correct  or  not.  (See  Section  13.) 

(&).  A  very  common  mistake  is  to  describe  such 
a  parcel  as  the  above  as  "lying  to  the  North  of 
the  Grand  Trunk  Pacific  Railway"  without  es- 
tablishing the  position  of  the  railway  by  reference 
to  a  particular  plan.  Since  there  are  probably 
at  least  two  plans  of  such  railway  of  record  in  the 
Land  Titles  Office,  which  do  not  as  a  rule  agree 
exactly  with  one  another,  and  since  it  is  quite 
possible  that  the  land  actually  occupied  and 
fenced  hi  by  the  railway  company  does  not  cor- 
respond with  that  shown  on  either  plan,  it  follows 
that  such  a  description  is  inadmissible  in  that  it 
lacks  clearness  and  definition. 

60.  It  is  frequently  desired  to  describe  the 
limit  of  a  right  of  way  as  a  boundary  of  a  parcel 
of  land  before  any  sufficient  plan  of  such  right  of 
way  has  been  registered.  In  the  Provinces  of 
Manitoba,  Saskatchewan  and  Alberta  at  least  a 


86  DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 

registrar  must  refuse  to  recognize  the  limit  of  a 
right  of  way  as  established  until  a  sufficient  plan 
of  survey  has  been  filed  or  registered,  so  that  any 
absolute  transfer  of  land  based  on  the  position 
of  right  of  way — considered  as  such — would  be 
unregisterable  until  such  time.  However,  such 
descriptions  are  frequently  required  to  be  made  for 
insertion  in  interim  agreements  of  sale,  etc.,  and 
the  following  example  is  a  description  by  metes 
and  bounds  of  the  parcel  otherwise  described  in 
the  preceding  section: — 

"All  that  part  of  the  North  East  quarter  of 
Section  Twenty-one  (21)  in  Township  Forty- 
nine  (49)  Range  Seventeen  (17)  West  of  the 
Fourth  (4th)  Meridian  in  the  Province  of  Alberta 
in  the  Dominion  of  Canada  as  the  same  is  shown 
on  a  plan  of  survey  of  said  township  approved 
and  confirmed  by  the  Surveyor  General  of  Canada 
at  Ottawa  on  the  llth  day  of  October,  1903, 
which  plan  is  of  record  in  the  Department  of  the 
Interior  at  Ottawa  and  in  the  Land  Titles  Office 
for  the  North  Alberta  Land  Registration  District 
at  Edmonton  in  said  Province  and  which  may  be 
more  particularly  described  as  follows: — 

"Commencing  at  the  North  East  corner  of 
said  quarter  section;  Thence  on  an  assumed 
bearing  of  due  South  along  the  Easterly  boundary 
of  said  quarter  section  a  distance  of  Eighteen 
hundred  and  thirty  decimal  point  seven  (1830.7) 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND  87 

feet  to  a  point;  Thence  North  65°  00'  West  a 
distance  of  Fifteen  hundred  and  twenty-nine 
(1529)  feet  to  a  point;  Thence  on  a  curve  to  the 
right  having  a  constant  radius  of  Fifteen  hundred 
and  nineteen  (1519)  feet  from  a  centre  lying  hi  a 
direction  of  North  25°  00'  East  from  the  last 
mentioned  point  a  distance  of  Three  hundred  and 
ninety-seven  decimal  point  six  seven  (397.67) 
feet;  Thence  North  50°  00'  West  a  distance  of 
Twelve  hundred  (1200)  feet  more  or  less  to  inter- 
sect the  West  boundary  of  said  quarter  section; 
Thence  North  along  said  West  boundary  Two 
hundred  feet  more  or  less  to  the  North  West 
corner  of  said  quarter  section;  Thence  due  East 
along  the  North  boundary  of  said  quarter  section 
Twenty-six  hundred  and  forty  (2640)  feet  more 
or  less  to  the  North  East  corner  of  said  quarter 
section  and  point  of  commencement." 

61.  There  is  an  example  of  an  ordinary  descrip- 
tion of  railway  right  of  way  given  in  section  49. 
As  these  descriptions  only  vary  as  to  the  land  of 
which  the  right  of  way  forms  a  part,  the  width 
of  the  right  of  way  and  the  registration  data  of 
the  railway  plan  on  which  they  are  based,  no 
further  example  need  be  given  here. 

62.  The  following  example  is  a  description  of 
additional  right  of  way  required  by  the  railway 
company  after  it  has  acquired  title  to  the  right 
of  way  shown  on  its  registered  plan  of  survey  of 


88  DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND 

the  same;  the  preamble  may  be  assumed  to  be 
the  same  as  that  given  for  the  description  con- 
tained in  section  60: —  "  Commencing  at  the 
point  of  intersection  of  the  Northerly  limit  of  the 
right  of  way  of  the  Grand  Trunk  Pacific  Railway 
as  said  right  of  way  is  shown  on  a  plan  of  survey 
thereof  registered  in  said  Land  Titles  Office  under 
number  1167  in  Day  Book  'P'  with  a  line  drawn 
at  right  angles  to  the  centre  line  of  said  railway 
as  shown  on  said  plan  from  a  point  distant  Thir- 
teen hundred  and  seven  (1307)  feet  Westerly 
from  the  intersection  of  said  centre  line  with  the 
Easterly  boundary  of  said  quarter  section;  Thence 
Westerly  and  following  said  Northerly  limit  a 
distance  of  Six  hundred  and  sixty  (660)  feet  to  a 
point;  Thence  North  Easterly  on  a  line  drawn  at 
right  angles  to  the  tangent  to  the  curve  at  that 
point  a  distance  of  Sixty-six  (66)  feet  to  a  point; 
Thence  Easterly  and  parallel  throughout  to  said 
Northerly  limit  a  distance  of  Six  hundred  and 
sixty-one  (661)  feet  more  or  less  to  a  point  distant 
Sixty-six  (66)  feet  from  the  point  of  commence- 
ment in  a  line  drawn  at  right  angles  to  the  said 
Northerly  limit  at  that  point;  Thence  in  a  straight 
line  Sixty-six  feet  to  said  point  of  commencement 
the  part  herein  described  containing  One  (1)  acre 
be  the  same  more  or  less  and  as  shown  colored 
red  on  an  attached  copy  of  part  of  said  plan." 
(a).  It  will  be  noted  that  the  above  description 


DESCRIPTIONS  OF  LAND  89 

is  not  self  contained  but  depends  in  a  secondary 
manner  on  the  plan  of  the  survey  of  adjacent 
land.  This  constitutes  a  defect  which  is  un- 
avoidable unless  a  separate  survey  of  the  parcel 
is  made,  and  a  plan  thereof  attached  to  the  de- 
scription and  made  a  part  of  it.  As  the  value  of  the 
1  acre  contained  is  probably  only  $15.00  or  $20.00, 
whereas  the  cost  to  the  company  of  having  a 
special  survey  made  at  an  out  of  the  way  part  of 
their  line  might  easily  amount  to  $100.00,  such 
descriptions  of  additional  right  of  way  are  very 
commonly  used. 


*HE  following  pages  contain  advertisements  of  a 
few  of  the  Macmillan  books  on  kindred  subjects. 


IMPORTANT  BOOKS  ON  SURVEYING 

Surveying  and  Surveying  Instruments 

BY  G.  A.  T.  MIDDLETON 

Associate  of  the  Royal  Institute  of  British  Architects,  and  Member 
of  the  Society  of  Architects. 

Third  edition,  revised  and  enlarged.    London,  1912. 

Cloth,  170  pp.,  III.,  I2mo,  $1.75  net 

A  concise  work  upon  Land  Surveying  in  which  modem 
instruments  and  modern  methods  of  working  are  described. 

Field  and  Colliery  Surveying 

A  Primer  Designed  for  the  Use  of  Students  of  Surveying 
and  Colliery  Manager  Aspirants. 

BY  T.  A.  O'DONAHUE,  M.I.M.E.,  F.G.S. 
London,  1896.    Latest  reprint  with  additions,  1911. 

Cloth,  263  pp.,  III.,  I2mo,  $  .80  net 

The  book  is  elementary  in  character  and  at  the  same  time 
supplies  a  more  or  less  complete  treatise  on  modern  practice 
in  Colliery  Surveying. 

Land  Surveying  and  Leveling 

BY  ARTHUR  THOMAS  WALMISLEY 

London,  1900. 

Cloth,  244  pp.,  i2nto,  $1.90  net 

Within  the  compass  of  one  volume  the  author  gives  the 
student  as  much  as  it  is  possible  to  teach  him  concerning  the 
practical  working  of  instruments  and  field  work  from  a  book 
alone.  It  will  be  found  a  practical  book  to  put  into  the  hands 
of  those  taking  Civil  Engineering  courses  at  an  early  date  in 
their  training. 

PUBLISHED  BY 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

Publishers         64-66  Fifth  Avenue         New  York 


BOOKS  ON  CIVIL  ENGINEERING 

Roads :  Their  Construction  and  Maintenance 

With  Special  Reference  to  Road  Materials. 

BY  ALLAN  GREENWELL,  A.M.I.C.E.,  F.G.S.,  AND  J.  V. 
ELSDEN,  B.Sc.  (Lond.),  F.G.S. 

London,  1901. 

Cloth,  275  pp.,  i2tno,  $1.60  net 

A  work  which,  while  essentially  of  an  elementary  nature, 
nevertheless  deals  with  such  of  the  inherent  difficulties  of  the 
subject  as  are  sure  to  confront  the  student  who  desires  to 
become  familiar  with  the  principles  which  should  guide  him 
in  his  daily  practice. 

Mining  Tables 

BY  F.  H.  HATCH,  PH.D.,  F.G.S. 

Member  of  the  Institute  of  Civil  Engineers,  Member  of  the  Ameri- 
can Institute  of  Mining  Engineers,  Member  of  the  Institution 
of  Mining  and  Metallurgy,  Late  President  of  the  Geological 
Society  of  South  Africa,  and  E.  G.  Valentine,  F.G.S.,  Member 
of  the  Federated  Institute  of  Mining  Engineers,  Associate  of 
the  Institution  of  Mining  and  Metallurgy. 

London,  1907. 

Cloth,  200  pp.,  8vo,  $1.75  net 

A  comparison  of  the  units  of  weight,  measure,  currency, 
mining  area,  etc.,  of  different  countries;  together  with  tables, 
constants  and  other  data  useful  to  mining  engineers  and  sur- 
veyors. 


PUBLISHED  BY 

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Publishers         64-66  Fifth  Avenue         New  York 


BOOKS  ON  CIVIL  ENGINEERING 

The  Theory  and  Practice  of  Bridge  Con- 
struction in  Timber,  Iron  and  Steel 

BY  MORGAN  W.  DAVIES 

London,  1908. 

Cloth,  594  pp.,  i2mo,  $3.50  net 

The  aim  of  this  work  is  primarily  to  furnish  easily  understood 
rules  whereby  problems  connected  with  Bridge  Construction 
may  be  treated  analytically  and  graphically.  Examples  are 
given  of  the  various  types  of  existing  bridges  constructed  either 
of  timber  or  of  steel.  In  every  instance  the  calculations  and 
designs  are  set  out  step  by  step  in  their  development  and  the 
illustrations  have  been  reproduced  from  the  actual  working 
drawings. 

Moving  Loads  on  Railway  Underbridges 

Including  Diagrams  of  Bending  Moments  and  Shearing 
Forces,  and  Tables  of  Equivalent  Uniform  Live  Loads. 

BY  HARRY  BAMFORD,  M.Sc.,  A.  M.  Inst.  C.  E. 

London,  1907. 

Cloth,  78  pp.,  Svo,  $1.25  net 

By  a  direct  application  of  the  funicular  polygon,  the  author 
has  succeeded  in  devising  a  graphical  method,  whereby  on  a 
single  diagram,  the  maximum  shears  and  the  maximum  bend- 
ing moments  and  the  points  along  the  spans  at  which  they 
occur  can  be  determined  with  facility  for  a  wide  range  of 
spans  and  for  any  given  type-train.  The  book  will  prove  use- 
ful to  engineering  students  in  general  and  to  designers  of  rail- 
way underbridges  in  particular. 


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BOOKS  ON  CIVIL  ENGINEERING 

Simplified  Methods   of   Calculating  Rein- 
forced Concrete  Beams 

BY  W.  NOBLE  TWELVETREES,  M.  I.  Mech.  E.,  A.  M.  I. 
E.  E.,  M.  R.  S.  I. 

London,  1909. 

Paper,  20  pp.,  III.,  i2mo,  $  .20  net 

The  Practical  Design  of  Reinforced  Concrete 
Beams  and  Columns 

BY  W.  NOBLE  TWELVETREES 
With  Labor-saving  Diagrams  and  Numerous  Illustrations. 
London,  1911. 

Cloth,  164  pp.,  III.,  I2mo,  $2.00  net 

The  author  has  confined  his  attention  chiefly  to  the  presenta- 
tion of  formulae,  simple  working  rules,  and  labor-saving  dia- 
grams, intended  to  facilitate  the  work  of  designing  reinforced 
concrete  structures. 

The  treatment  throughout  is  applicable  to  all  rational  sys- 
tems of  construction  and  all  varieties  of  reinforcing  bars.  The 
work  is  a  thoroughly  practical  guide. 


Structural  Iron  and  Steel 

A  Text-book  for  Architects,  Engineers,  Builders  and  Science 
Students. 

BY  W.  NOBLE  TWELVETREES 
London,  1900. 

Cloth,  266  pp.,  i2mo,  $i.go  net 

In  this  elementary  treatise  the  author  presents  in  regular 
sequence  the  more  important  details  relative  to  iron  and  steel 
as  applied  to  structural  work. 


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